Webster's English Dictionary

Enter the word to look up:

congregation

con.gre.ga.tion \.ka:n-gri-'ga--sh*n\ n 1a: an assembly of persons : 
   GATHERING; esp : an assembly o f persons met for worship and religious 
   instruction 1b: a religious community : as  1b1: an organized body of 
   believers in a particular locality  1b2: a Roman Catholic religious 
   institute with only simple vows  1b3: a group of monasteries forming an 
   independent subdivision of an order  2: the act or an instance of 
   congregating or bringing together : the stat e of being congregated 3: a 
   body of cardinals and officials forming an administrative division of  the 
   papal curia