Word.ws English Dictionary

obvention

/ɒbˈvɛnʃən/

obvention noun: the act of happening incidentally; that which happens casually; an incidental advantage.

Noun

obvention (plural obventions)

  1. (obsolete) The act of happening incidentally; that which happens casually; an incidental advantage.
    • Tithes and other obventions.1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […]...
    • Legacies bequeathed by the deaths of princes and great persons, and other casualities and obventions.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
  2. A church revenue, especially one of an occasional or incidental character.
    • The profits of the churches of London were formerly the oblations and obventions; for which a remedy is given by law: but the Tithes and Profits of the London clergy are now settled and appointed by Act of Parliament.1733, Giles Jacob, “Obventions”, in A New Law-Dictionary, 2nd edition; quoted in “Obvention Bread”, in Notes and Queries, 10 September 1910
    • His altarage is worth 10s. a year, which is capable of proof, because he leases half of it for 5s., reserving to himself obvention bread.1825, Hugh Owen, John Blakeway, A History of Shrewsbury, volume 2, page 268; quoted in R. B. Upton, “Obvention Bread”, in Notes and Queries, 20 August 1910

Forms of obvention

pluralobventions

Origin of obvention

From Latin obventio, from obvenire (“to come before or in the way of, to befall”), from ob (see ob-) + venire (“to come”). Compare French obvention.

Questions about obvention

What does obvention mean?
Obvention means the act of happening incidentally; that which happens casually; an incidental advantage.
What part of speech is obvention?
Obvention is a noun.
How do you pronounce obvention?
Obvention is pronounced /ɒbˈvɛnʃən/.
What is the plural of obvention?
The plural of obvention is obventions.

Words near obvention in the dictionary

  1. OBUs
  2. obv
  3. obv.
  4. obvallate
  5. obvelation
  6. obvention
  7. obventions
  8. obversant
  9. obverse
  10. obversely
  11. obverses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: obvention (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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