Word.ws English Dictionary

layship

layship noun: laymanship (the condition of being a layman.).

Noun

layship (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) laymanship (the condition of being a layman.)
    • the priest esteems their layships unhallowed and unclean1642 (indicated as 1641), John Milton, The Reason of Church-governement Urg’d against Prelaty […], London: […] E[dward] G[riffin] for Iohn Rothwell, […], →OCLC

Origin of layship

From lay + -ship.

Questions about layship

What does layship mean?
Layship means laymanship (the condition of being a layman.).
What part of speech is layship?
Layship is a noun.

Words near layship in the dictionary

  1. Laysan rails
  2. Laysan teal
  3. Laysan teals
  4. layshaft
  5. layshafts
  6. layship
  7. Layson
  8. Laysons
  9. layst
  10. laystall
  11. laystalls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: layship (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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