Word.ws English Dictionary

preaching

/ˈpɹiːt͡ʃɪŋ/

preaching is the present participle and gerund of preach.

Meaning of preach

Verb

preach (third-person singular simple present preaches, present participle preaching, simple past and past participle preached or (nonstandard) praught)

  1. (intransitive) To give a sermon.
    • Our pastor can preach very well.
  2. (transitive) To proclaim by public discourse; to utter in a sermon or a formal religious harangue.
    • The Spirit of the Lord God is vpon me, therefore hathe the Lord anointed me: he hathe ſent me to preache good tidings vnto the poore,[…]1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. […] (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: […] Rouland Hall, →OCLC, Isaiah LXI:1, folio 304...
  3. (transitive) To advise or recommend earnestly.
    • My Mʳ preaches patience to him,[…]c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  4. (transitive) To teach or instruct by preaching; to inform by preaching.
    • The Spirits of the Dead, / Quitting their mortal mansion, enter not, / As falsely ye are preached, their final seat / Of bliss, or bale;[…]1801, Robert Southey, “The Ninth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume II, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, page 149
  5. (intransitive) To give advice in an offensive or obtrusive manner.
    • Papa, don't preach, I'm in trouble, deep / Papa, don't preach, I've been losing sleep1986, Brian Elliot, Madonna, “Papa Don't Preach”, performed by Madonna

See all 7 meanings of preach

Noun

preaching (countable and uncountable, plural preachings)

  1. The act of delivering a sermon or similar moral instruction.
    • And, as I know from what you have now found upon your own souls, since he came amongst you, while under the preachings and persuadings of such a singularly serious Gospel minister, you will be restlessly solicitous till he be settled[…]1833, William Steven, The history of the Scottish church, Rotterdam, page 63

Forms of preaching

pluralpreachings

Origin of preaching

Inherited from Middle English prechynge.

Words formed from preaching

Phrases with preaching

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with preaching

Questions about preaching

What does preaching mean?
Preaching means the act of delivering a sermon or similar moral instruction.
What is preaching the present participle and gerund of?
Preaching is the present participle and gerund of preach.
What part of speech is preaching?
Preaching is a noun.
How do you pronounce preaching?
Preaching is pronounced /ˈpɹiːt͡ʃɪŋ/.
What is the plural of preaching?
The plural of preaching is preachings.

Words near preaching in the dictionary

  1. preachify
  2. preachifying
  3. preachily
  4. preachin'
  5. preachiness
  6. preaching
  7. preaching band
  8. preaching bands
  9. preaching cross
  10. preaching crosses
  11. preaching down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preaching (page history and authors); preach (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-preaching.ogg.

Cite this entry: “preaching.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/preaching. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.