''benediction'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260817185222-00-⌔

benediction - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

benediction (countable and uncountable, plural benedictions)

• A short invocation for help, blessing and guidance from God, said on behalf of another person or persons (sometimes at the end of a church worship service).
  • ✤ Synonym: blessing
  • ✤ *to pronounce/give/say the benediction *
  • ✤ *the nuptial benediction *
  • ✤ *a parting benediction *
  • ✤ O, look upon me, sir,
    And hold your hands in benediction o’er me.¹
  • ✤ So saying, he [the angel] arose; whom Adam thus
    Follow’d with benediction.²
  • ✤ My pen (its last scrawl a benediction on my beloved) dropt from my fingers;³
  • ✤ Cohen kept on his own hat, and took no notice of the visitor, but stood still while the two children went up to him and clasped his knees: then he laid his hands on each in turn and uttered his Hebrew benediction; whereupon the wife, who had lately taken baby from the cradle, brought it up to her husband and held it under his outstretched hands, to be blessed in its sleep.⁴
  • ✤ Long brahminical hairs sprouted out of his ears, and he drew further attention to himself by closing his eyes, neatly shaking away tears, putting a hand on Owad’s head and speaking a Hindi benediction.⁵
• In the Anglican church, the ceremony used to institute an abbot, analogous to the consecration of a bishop.
  • ✤ What Consecration is to a Bishop, that Benediction is to an Abbot; but in a different way: For a Bishop is not properly such till Consecration; but an Abbot being elected and confirm’d, is properly such before Benediction.⁶
• A Roman Catholic rite by which bells, banners, candles, etc., are blessed with holy water and formally dedicated to God.
  • ✤ [He] later liked to attend benediction in the chapel at Brideshead and see the ladies of the family with their necks arched in devotion under their black lace mantillas; […]⁷
• Help, good fortune or reward from God or another supernatural source.
  • ✤ Synonyms: blessing, grace
  • ✤ […] they throng who should buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed and brought a benediction to the buyer:⁸
  • ✤ Homeward serenely she walked with God’s benediction upon her.⁹

Etymology

From Middle English benediccion, from Ecclesiastical Latin benedictio, benedictionis, from benedictus (“blessed; well spoken of”). Doublet of benison.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌbɛnəˈdɪkʃən/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɪkʃən

Printed 2026-08-17.

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Footnotes

1. c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]: ↩

2. 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a] nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a] nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1281-1282: ↩

3. 1748, [Samuel Richardson], chapter 50, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a] nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 290: ↩

4. 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XXXIV, in Daniel Deronda, volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book IV (Gwendolen Gets Her Choice), page 354: ↩

5. 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas ‎${}^{[1]}$, Penguin, published 1992, Part 2, Chapter 6, p. 537: ↩

6. 1726, John Ayliffe, “Of Abbots, Priors, Abbies, Priories, &c.”, in Parergon juris canonici anglicani: or, A commentary, by way of supplement to the canons and constitutions of the Church of England ‎${}^{[2]}$, London: for the author, page 13: ↩

7. 1945, Evelyn Waugh, chapter 5, in Brideshead Revisited […], London: Chapman & Hall, published 1952, →OCLC, book 1 (Et in Arcadia Ego), page 98: ↩

8. c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act XIV, scene iv]: ↩

9. 1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, part I: ↩