Word.ws English Dictionary

cilice

/ˈsɪlɪs/

cilice noun: a garment or undergarment made of coarse cloth or animal hair worn close to the skin used by members of various Christian traditions as a self-imposed means of penance (repentance) and mortification of the flesh.

Noun

cilice (plural cilices)

  1. A garment or undergarment made of coarse cloth or animal hair worn close to the skin used by members of various Christian traditions as a self-imposed means of penance (repentance) and mortification of the flesh.
    • It was deemed meritorious to disfigure the body by neglect and filth, to extenuate it by fasting and watchfulness, to lacerate it with stripes, and to fret the wounds with cilices of horsehair.1824, Robert Southey, “View of the Papal System”, in The Book of the Church. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 305–306
    Synonyms:
    hairshirt, sackcloth
  2. A leather strap studded with metallic barbs that cut into flesh as a constant reminder of Christ's suffering.
    • All she had done was give Teena a cilice, a barbed metal chain she was to tie around her thigh for two hours every day, and a discipline, a rope whip with knotted ends she was to use on her back when she prayed the Hail Mary.2024 March 16, Antonia Cundy, “The Opus Dei diaries”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18

cilice meaning in Tamil

cilice in Tamil

முரட்டுச் சணல் துணி

Synonyms of cilice

Forms of cilice

pluralcilices

Origin of cilice

From French cilice, from Latin cilicium (“clothing made of goatskin”), from Cilicia where it originates from.

Words formed from cilice

  • chain cilice
  • hairshirt cilice

Questions about cilice

What does cilice mean?
Cilice means a garment or undergarment made of coarse cloth or animal hair worn close to the skin used by members of various Christian traditions as a self-imposed means of penance (repentance) and mortification of the flesh.
What is cilice in Tamil?
Cilice in Tamil is முரட்டுச் சணல் துணி. See Cilice meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is cilice?
Cilice is a noun.
How do you pronounce cilice?
Cilice is pronounced /ˈsɪlɪs/.
What is the plural of cilice?
The plural of cilice is cilices.

Words near cilice in the dictionary

  1. ciliatures
  2. Ciliau Aeron
  3. Ciliberto
  4. Cilibertos
  5. Cilibia
  6. cilice
  7. cilices
  8. Cilicia
  9. Cilician
  10. Cilician Armenia
  11. Cilician Armenian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cilice (page history and authors); cilice (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: “cilice.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cilice. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.