acephali
/eɪˈsɛf.ə.laɪ/
acephali noun: a people reported by Herodotus and Josephus to have no heads or removable heads. Also the plural of acephalus.
Noun (1)
acephali
Noun (2) capitalized: Acephali
Acephali pl (plural only)
- A group of individuals who didn't adhear to the condemnation of Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus (431 CE).
- Synonyms:
- Nestorian Acephali
- A faction comprised of people who initially refused to acknowledge the authority of the Council of Chalcedon.
- A radical Monophysite sect in the era after the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE). This sect eventually split into three groups, the Anthropomorphites, Barsanuphists, and Esianists, before being absorbed by the Jacobites in the 9th century.
- Synonyms:
- Monophysite Acephali, clerici vagans
- A 5th century faction of Eutychians who had no leader.
- The followers of Severus of Antioch.
- The followers of Patriarch Paul of Alexandria after his deposition, and who later aligned themselves with the Miaphysites.
- Synonyms:
- Acephalite, Alexandrian Acephali, later Semidalite, vagabundus, Paulitae
- A 6th century sect with no sucession of priests, who professed to uphold a valid Eucharist by baking bread with the crumbs of blessed bread baked inside it.
- Synonyms:
- Barsanian
- A congregation whose priest refuses alleigance to their bishop.
- A sect of the Levellers and free socagers who claimed no feudal superior but the King.
Also used as
acephali is also the plural of acephalus.
acephali is also the uncommon form of acephalites.
Synonyms of acephali
- Nestorian Acephali
- Monophysite Acephali
- clerici vagans
- Acephalite
- Alexandrian Acephali
- later Semidalite
- vagabundus
- Paulitae
- Barsanian
- Haesitantes
Origin of acephali
From Late Latin, plural of Latin acephalus. See acephal.
Borrowed from Late Latin acephalus, from Ancient Greek ἀκέφαλος (aképhalos, “headless”), apparently referring to the various movements’ refusals to accept the decisions of church councils.
Words formed from acephali
- clerici acephali
- Nestorian Acephali
- Monophysite Acephali
- Alexandrian Acephali
Questions about acephali
- What does acephali mean?
- Acephali means a people reported by Herodotus and Josephus to have no heads or removable heads.
- What part of speech is acephali?
- Acephali is a noun.
- How do you pronounce acephali?
- Acephali is pronounced /eɪˈsɛf.ə.laɪ/.
Words near acephali in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: acephali (page history and authors); Acephali (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-acephali.wav.
Cite this entry: “acephali.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/acephali. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.