Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use clerical in a sentence

19 example sentences · adjective, noun

Clerical means of or relating to clerks or their work. Example: “In many churches some pews are reserved for either clerical or liturgical officials such as canons, or for prominent families.”

Examples of clerical by meaning

adjectiveOf or relating to clerks or their work.

  • Has he to do directly with the paper when it's made or is his department purely clerical?"1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London

More sentences with clerical

  • In many churches some pews are reserved for either clerical or liturgical officials such as canons, or for prominent families.From the entry pew
  • They seemed more lay than clerical.From the entry lay
  • Additionally all rulings in the revolutionary and clerical courts are final and cannot bebreak; overturned.2008, Dr Yonah Alexander, Milton M. Hoenig, The New Iranian Leadership. From the entry bebreak
  • While antiquitarianism developed in the Sung, examples of clerical extant from the 10-12th centuries are rare.1987, Hsien-yü Shu’s Calligraphy and His “Admonitions” Scroll of 1299, page 192. From the entry antiquitarianism
  • The clerical opponents of the Reformation systematically invoked Galfridian prophecy to justify their resistance.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 380. From the entry Galfridian
  • Before the Iranian Revolution, transsexual treatments were tacitly allowed, but Molkara wanted a ruling that provided clerical legitimacy.2016 November 14, Dana Jennett Bevan Ph.D., Being Transgender: What You Should Know, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN. From the entry transsexual
  • Many of these hot drinks have clerical names—Bishop being a type of mulled port, Cardinal using claret, and Pope Champagne.1976 January 15, Times (London), 12/8. From the entry pope
  • They also manufacture clerical collars, plastic fronts and nursewear.1955, Air Power; the Air Forces’ Quarterly, page 293. From the entry nursewear
  • The look of hurt fury which she hurled at the Bishop's back might have singed his clerical broadcloth.1942, Emily Carr, “The Bishop and the Canary”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC. From the entry broadcloth
  • Why not subpoena as well the clerical proficients?1924, Herman Melville, chapter 10, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.. From the entry proficient
  • Shall it be governed theocratically by irrational beliefs and clerical arbitrariness, or nomocratically by rational laws and civic right?1904 [1899], Ernst Haeckel, translated by Joseph McCabe, Wonders of life, published 1905. From the entry nomocratically
  • Protestants, who, considering the present Government, Catholic and clerical, think themselves obliged to hostilize it and make propaganda against it.1903, United States Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, page 298. From the entry hostilize
  • Le bon sens served Voltaire well: it enabled him to discredit much clerical propaganda and a good many naive and pedantic absurdities.2013, Isaiah Berlin, edited by Henry Hardy, Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas, 2nd edition, Princeton University Press…. From the entry oxblood
  • Ayatollah Khamenei was elevated from the middle clerical rank, hojatolislam, to ayatollah overnight in what was essentially a political rather than a religious decision.2009 June 16, Neil Macfarquhar, “In Iran, an Iron Cleric, Now Blinking”, in New York Times. From the entry hojatolislam
  • The Bishop is a lean and slippered pantaloon, at least in his old clerical garments which he thinks good enough for the sea.1960, Lady Caroline Lane Reynolds Slemmer Jebb, With Dearest Love to All: The Life and Letters of Lady Jebb, page 213. From the entry pantaloon
  • Gil was making light of strangling himself with an imaginary clerical collar, saying Dom was a mommie’s boy, but no one could see much in the fog.2005, Stephens Gerard Malone, [chapter 2], in Miss Elva: A Novel, Toronto, Ont.: Vintage Canada, published 2006, →ISBN, part 1 (1927)…. From the entry mommie's boy
  • Other clerical plaintiffs were the Methodist, Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and African Methodist Episcopal bishops of Arkansas, joined by representatives from Presbyterians, Southern Baptists, and Reform Jews.1996 May, Betty McCollister, “Creation ‘science’ vs. religious attitudes”, in USA Today, volume 124, number 2612, page 74. From the entry bibliolatry
  • Our clerical guide did not fail us, but took us to see some ancient architectural remains, water tanks, a naumachia and other ruins of a similar sort.1962, WH Auden; Elizabeth Mayer, translating JW Goethe, Italian Journey, Penguin, published 1970, page 286. From the entry naumachia

Meaning of clerical

  1. adjective Of or relating to clerks or their work.
  2. adjective Of or relating to the clergy.
  3. noun A member of the clergy.

Full definition of clerical

Questions about clerical in a sentence

How do you use clerical in a sentence?
Clerical is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “In many churches some pews are reserved for either clerical or liturgical officials such as canons, or for prominent families.”
What is a short sentence with clerical?
“They seemed more lay than clerical.”
What does clerical mean?
Clerical means of or relating to clerks or their work.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clerical (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use clerical in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/clerical. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.