Word.ws English Dictionary

chapelayn

chapelayn is the obsolete spelling of chaplain.

Meaning of chaplain

Noun

chaplain (plural chaplains)

  1. A member of a religious body (who is often, although not always, of the clergy) officially assigned to provide pastoral care at an institution, group, private chapel, etc.
    • The Railway Mission's regionally based chaplains perform the role of impartial 'friend' to anyone working on the railway, regardless of their faith.2021 September 8, Stefanie Foster, “Network News: Countdown is on to the National Rail Awards 2021”, in RAIL, number 939, page 19
  2. A person without religious affiliation who carries out similar duties in a secular context.

See all 3 meanings of chaplain

Forms of chapelayn

pluralchapelayns

Questions about chapelayn

What is chapelayn the obsolete spelling of?
Chapelayn is the obsolete spelling of chaplain.

Words near chapelayn in the dictionary

  1. chapel royal
  2. Chapel-en-le-Frith
  3. chapel-goer
  4. chapel-goers
  5. Chapel-le-Dale
  6. chapelayn
  7. chapelayns
  8. Chapelcross
  9. chapeler
  10. chapelers
  11. chapeless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chapelayn (page history and authors); chaplain (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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Cite this entry: “chapelayn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chapelayn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.