prelature

Variant of prelacy

prelacy definition

prela·cy (prel′ə sē)

noun pl. prelacies -·cies

  1. also prelature prel′a·ture′ (-c̸ho̵or′, -c̸hər)
    1. the office or rank of a prelate
    2. prelates collectively
  2. church government by prelates: often a hostile term
    also prelatism prel′a·tism′ (-tiz′əm)

Etymology: ME prelacie < ML(Ec) praelatia

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.