Word.ws English Dictionary

cresselle

cresselle noun: a wooden rattle formerly used as a substitute for a bell in the Roman Catholic church.

Noun

cresselle (plural cresselles)

  1. (historical) A wooden rattle formerly used as a substitute for a bell in the Roman Catholic church.
    • Analarin, a priest, spoke of boxwood rattles, which were used to announce the clergy from the ninth century. The crécelle, or 'cressel', was once used in Roman Catholic churches during Passion Week instead of a bell.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 36
    Synonyms:
    crotalus, crotalum, clapper

Synonyms of cresselle

Forms of cresselle

pluralcresselles

Origin of cresselle

French crécelle (“rattle”).

Questions about cresselle

What does cresselle mean?
Cresselle means a wooden rattle formerly used as a substitute for a bell in the Roman Catholic church.
What part of speech is cresselle?
Cresselle is a noun.
What is the plural of cresselle?
The plural of cresselle is cresselles.

Words near cresselle in the dictionary

  1. cress
  2. Cressage
  3. Cressagian
  4. Cressbrook
  5. cressed
  6. cresselle
  7. cresselles
  8. cresses
  9. cresset
  10. cressets
  11. Cressey

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cresselle (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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