Word.ws English Dictionary

observancy

observancy is the obsolete form of observance.

Meaning of observance

Noun

observance (countable and uncountable, plural observances)

  1. The practice of complying with a law, custom, command or rule.
  2. The custom of celebrating a holiday or similar occasion.
  3. Observation or the act of watching.
  4. A rule governing a religious order, especially in the Roman Catholic church.
    • Thomas Merton was a monk in the Order of Cistertians of the Strict Observance.
  5. That which is to be observed.
  6. Reverence; homage.

Forms of observancy

pluralobservancies

Questions about observancy

What is observancy the obsolete form of?
Observancy is the obsolete form of observance.

Words near observancy in the dictionary

  1. observables
  2. observably
  3. observance
  4. observances
  5. observancies
  6. observancy
  7. observanda
  8. observandum
  9. observant
  10. Observantine
  11. Observantines

Source and license

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