Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • An ancient city of Bithynia in northwest Asia Minor. Dating from the fourth century BC, it flourished during Roman times. The Nicene Creed was adopted at an ecumenical council convened here by Constantine I in AD 325.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun historical An ancient city in Bithynia in Asia Minor, important during Roman and Byzantine times, on the site of modern-day İznik, Turkey, to which it gave its name. Famous as the site of first council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which composed the Nicene Creed.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the first ecumenical council in 325 which produced the wording of the Nicene Creed and condemned the heresy of Arianism
  • noun an ancient city in Bithynia; founded in the 4th century BC and flourished under the Romans; the Nicene Creed was adopted there in 325
  • noun the seventh ecumenical council in 787 which refuted iconoclasm and regulated the veneration of holy images

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Via Latin Nīcaea, from Ancient Greek Νίκαια (Nikaia), from νίκη (nikē, "victory").

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Examples

  • Meanwhile, we came to Nicaea, which is the capital of all Romania, on the fourth day, the day before the Nones of May, and there encamped.

    De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History » The First Crusade: A short narrative from contemporary sources 2009

  • But it is another thing altogether to say that the doctrine of the Trinity itself was known to the Church all along before Nicaea, which is equally clearly false.

    Archive 2006-12-01 Mike L 2006

  • But it is another thing altogether to say that the doctrine of the Trinity itself was known to the Church all along before Nicaea, which is equally clearly false.

    What does 'development of doctrine' mean? Mike L 2006

  • And he shall go though Turkey to the port of Chiutok and to the city of Nicaea, which is but seven miles thence.

    The Travels of Sir John Mandeville 2004

  • The point of definitions such as Nicaea's is to be more specific about the unchanging truth, in such a way as to make clearer that aspect of the truth which the heretics deny.

    What does 'development of doctrine' mean? Mike L 2006

  • The point of definitions such as Nicaea's is to be more specific about the unchanging truth, in such a way as to make clearer that aspect of the truth which the heretics deny.

    Archive 2006-12-01 Mike L 2006

  • Ecumenical (general, theoretically universal) councils such as Nicaea (325), Constantinople I (381), Ephesus (431), and Chalcedon (451) tried to resolve conflicts and to define doctrine.

    b. The Early Church 2001

  • Relics became ingrained in Catholic Church orthodoxy at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, when a law was passed stating that every church should have a relic at its altar.

    Shroud of Turin is real enough 2010

  • The first major city that the armies of the First Crusade sieged on their way to Jerusalem was Nicaea (now Iznik) in northwest Asia Minor.

    Archive 2009-05-01 AYDIN 2009

  • Nicaea was then the capital of the Seljuk Turks who had captured it from the Byzantine in 1077.

    Archive 2009-05-01 AYDIN 2009

Comments

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  • Also Nicæa.

    April 12, 2016