chancel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The space around the altar of a church for the clergy and sometimes the choir, often enclosed by a lattice or railing.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Eccles., the inclosed space in a church surrounding the altar, and railed off from the choir; the sanctuary. In small churches having no separate choir the altar-rails (and in some churches the screen or latticework) divide the chancel immediately from the body of the church. In a wider sense the words chancel and choir are sometimes used to include both the sanctuary and the choir proper. In Greek churches the bema answers to the chancel or sanctuary, and the iconostasis (as the choir does not intervene between sanctuary and nave) corresponds in some measure to both altar-rails and rood-screen, to the former as separating the altar from the rest of the church, and to the latter as constituting a marked boundary to the nave.
2. n. An inclosed space railed off in courts of judicature.

Wiktionary

1. n. The space around the altar in a church, often enclosed, for use by the clergy and the choir. In medieval cathedrals the chancel was usually enclosed or blocked off from the nave by an altar screen.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. That part of a church, reserved for the use of the clergy, where the altar, or communion table, is placed.
2. n. All that part of a cruciform church which is beyond the line of the transept farthest from the main front.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. area around the altar of a church for the clergy and choir; often enclosed by a lattice or railing