Word.ws English Dictionary

ambonoclast

/æmˈbɒnəˌklæst/

ambonoclast noun: one who wishes to excessively modernize churches, particularly by removing traditional screens.

Noun

ambonoclast (plural ambonoclasts)

  1. (derogatory) One who wishes to excessively modernize churches, particularly by removing traditional screens.
    • "The principal characteristics of modern ambonoclasts may be summed up as follows:"1861, A. Welby Pugin, Recollections of A.N. Welby Pugin, and His Father, Augustus Pugin: With Notices of Their Works, page 153
    • "ambonoclasts who destroyed so much screenwork during the last century ..."1915, Edward Walford et al., The Antiquary, page 331

Forms of ambonoclast

pluralambonoclasts

Origin of ambonoclast

From Ancient Greek ἄμβων (ámbōn, “pulpit”) + -o- + -clast. In reference to the rood screen that separated the choir (where priests were) from the nave (where the congregation was) in a medieval church, and from which was sometimes also read.

Words formed from ambonoclast

  • ambonoclastic

Questions about ambonoclast

What does ambonoclast mean?
Ambonoclast means one who wishes to excessively modernize churches, particularly by removing traditional screens.
What part of speech is ambonoclast?
Ambonoclast is a noun.
How do you pronounce ambonoclast?
Ambonoclast is pronounced /æmˈbɒnəˌklæst/.
What is the plural of ambonoclast?
The plural of ambonoclast is ambonoclasts.

Words near ambonoclast in the dictionary

  1. ambones
  2. Ambonese
  3. Ambonese Malay
  4. ambonite
  5. ambonites
  6. ambonoclast
  7. ambonoclasts
  8. ambons
  9. ambonychiid
  10. ambonychiids
  11. ambophilous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ambonoclast (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.

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