benefice
/ˈbɛnɪfɪs/
benefice noun: land granted to a priest in a church that has a source of income attached to it.
Noun
benefice (plural benefices)
- Land granted to a priest in a church that has a source of income attached to it.
- If after long expectation, much expense, travel, earnest suit of ourselves and friends, we obtain a small benefice at last, our misery begins afresh […]1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC
- She saw how many, even of good men's children, profaned the ministry, […] that she was vehemently against addicting any to that office, that had not, besides good wits and parts, so great a love to God and souls, as to come to it with absolute self-denial, resolved to serve Christ at the dearest...1681, Richard Baxter, “Her Desires to Do Good”, in Life of Mrs. Margaret Baxter. […] (Christian Biography), abridged edition, London: Religious Tract Society, […], published [1832], →OCLC, page 46
- A favour or benefit.
- An estate in lands; a fief.
Verb
benefice (third-person singular simple present benefices, present participle beneficing, simple past and past participle beneficed)
- To bestow a benefice upon
- There are two volumes, "The Open Door for Man's approach to God" (London, 1650) and "A Consideration of Infant Baptism" (London, 1653), by John Horne, who was beneficed at All Hallows, King's Lynn.1917, George A. Stephen, Three Centuries of a City Library
- You clergymen of the Established Church have been richly endowed and beneficed expressly for this work--why don't you DO it?1851, Horace Greeley, Glances at Europe
Forms of benefice
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | benefices |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | benefices |
| present participle | beneficing |
| past participle | beneficed |
| past | beneficed |
Origin of benefice
From Old French benefice, from Latin beneficium.
Words formed from benefice
Questions about benefice
- What does benefice mean?
- Benefice means land granted to a priest in a church that has a source of income attached to it.
- What part of speech is benefice?
- Benefice can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce benefice?
- Benefice is pronounced /ˈbɛnɪfɪs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of benefice?
- The plural of benefice is benefices.
Words near benefice in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: benefice (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)-Vealhurl-benefice.wav.
Cite this entry: “benefice.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/benefice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.