''ablution'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260708194133-00-⌔

ablution - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

ablution (countable and uncountable, plural ablutions)

• The act of washing something.
  • (chemistry) Originally, the purifying of oils and other substances by emulsification with hot water; now more generally, a thorough cleansing of a precipitate or other non-dissolved substance. [First attested from around 1350 to 1470.]¹
  • The act of washing or cleansing the body, or some part of it, as a religious rite. [From mid 16${}^{th}$ century.]¹
    • ✤ Let water be brought to perform my ablutions, and let the pious Fakreddin be called to offer up his prayers with mine.²
  • (literary or humorous, usually in the plural) Washing oneself; bathing, cleaning oneself up. [From mid 18${}^{th}$ century.]¹
    • ✤ He followed the steps of Bella, who soon conducted him to his chamber, and left him to those ablutions which a long ride along a sandy road had rendered particularly necessary.³
    • ✤ She treats him not as a doddering old fool but as a man hampered in his movements by injury. Patiently, without baby-talk, she helps him through his ablutions.⁴
    • ✤ There are now indications that it has caused some Americans to become more spartan when it comes to ablutions.⁵
  • (Western Christianity) The rinsing of the priest’s hand and the sacred vessel following the Communion with, depending on rite, water or a mix of it and wine, which may then be drunk by the priest. [from 17th c.]
  • (Islam) wudu, ritual washing of the limbs and head performed immediately before prayer or holding the Quran
• The liquid used in the cleansing or ablution. [From early 18${}^{th}$ century.]¹
  • ✤ Cast the ablutions in the main⁶
• (Eastern Orthodoxy) The ritual consumption by the deacon or priest of leftover sacred wine of host after the Communion.
• (plural only, UK, military) The location or building where the showers and basins are located. [From mid 20${}^{th}$ century.]¹

Etymology

From Middle English ablucioun (“cleansing of impurities”), from Old French ablution, and its source, Late Latin ablūtiō (“a washing away”), from abluō (“wash away”), from ab- (“away”) +‎ lavō (“wash”).⁷

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /əˈbluː.ʃn̩/
• (US) IPA: /əˈblu.ʃn̩/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -uːʃən

Printed 2026-07-08.

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Footnotes

1. Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “ablution”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 5-6. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. 1786, William Beckford, Vathek; an Arabian Tale: ↩

3. 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter II, page 25: ↩

4. 2005, J. M. Coetzee, “Four”, in Slow Man, New York: Viking, →ISBN, page 28: ↩

5. 2021 May 6, Maria Cramer, “See Fewer People. Take Fewer Showers.”, in The New York Times ‎${}^{[1]}$, →ISSN: ↩

6. 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC: ↩

7. Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 [1998], →ISBN), page 3 ↩