Word.ws English Dictionary

Childermas

/ˈt͡ʃɪldə(ɹ)ˌmæs/

Childermas proper noun: a religious service and holiday commemorating the supposed Massacre of the Innocents in Judea around the time of the birth of Christ, typically observed on 28 December in Western Christianity and 29 December in Eastern Christianity; in Spanish and Latin American contexts, the day is frequently filled with light-hearted pranks similar to April Fools' Day.

Proper noun

Childermas (plural Childermases)

  1. A religious service and holiday commemorating the supposed Massacre of the Innocents in Judea around the time of the birth of Christ, typically observed on 28 December in Western Christianity and 29 December in Eastern Christianity; in Spanish and Latin American contexts, the day is frequently filled with light-hearted pranks similar to April Fools' Day.

Synonyms of Childermas

Forms of Childermas

pluralChildermases
alternative formChildermas-Day

Origin of Childermas

From Childermas-Day, from Middle English Childermasse day, from Old English Ċildamæsse dæg, from ċilda (“children's”) + mæsse (“mass, religious service”) + dæġ (“day”), equivalent to childer + -mas.

Questions about Childermas

What does Childermas mean?
Childermas means a religious service and holiday commemorating the supposed Massacre of the Innocents in Judea around the time of the birth of Christ, typically observed on 28 December in Western Christianity and 29 December in Eastern Christianity; in Spanish and Latin American contexts, the day is frequently filled with light-hearted pranks similar to April Fools' Day.
What part of speech is Childermas?
Childermas is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Childermas?
Childermas is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɪldə(ɹ)ˌmæs/.

Words near Childermas in the dictionary

  1. Childebert
  2. childed
  3. childer
  4. Childer Thornton
  5. Childeric
  6. Childermas
  7. Childermas-Day
  8. Childermas-Days
  9. Childermases
  10. Childermass
  11. Childermasses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Childermas (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:

Cite this entry: “Childermas.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/childermas. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.