congregation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of assembling.
2. n. A body of assembled people or things; a gathering.
3. n. A group of people gathered for religious worship.
4. n. The members of a specific religious group who regularly worship at a church or synagogue.
5. n. Roman Catholic Church A religious institute in which only simple vows, not solemn vows, are taken.
6. n. Roman Catholic Church A division of the Curia.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of congregating; the act of bringing together or assembling; aggregation.
2. n. Any collection or assemblage of persons or things.
3. n. Specifically In the Old Testament, the whole body of the Hebrews, as a community gathered and set apart for the service of God; in the New Testament, the Christian church in general, or a particular assemblage of worshipers.
4. n. In modern use, an assemblage of persons for religious worship and instruction; in a restricted sense, a number of persons organized or associated as a body for the purpose of holding religious services in common. See parish and society.
5. n. Formerly, in the English colonies of North America, a parish, hundred, town, plantation, or other settlement.
6. n. In the Rom. Cath. Ch.: One of the committees of cardinals appointed by the pope to aid him in the transaction of the business of the church. The decisions of these congregations are ordinarily regarded as equivalent to decisions of the pope himself. There are eleven regular congregations, namely: the Congregation of the Consistory, which prepares the business to be brought before the consistory or assembly of all the cardinals (see consistory, 4);
7. n. A religious community bound together by a common rule, but not by the solemn and irrevocable vows which characterize the monastic orders. Among them are the Oratorians, the Dames Anglaises, the Fathers of the Mission or Lazarists, the Oblates, the Passionists, the Redemptorists, the Marists, and the Christian Brothers. (See Christian Brothers, under Christian.)
8. n. A group of monasteries which agree to practise the rules of their order more strictly in their respective houses, and unite themselves together by closer ties, such as the congregations of Cluny and St. Maur.
9. n. A committee of bishops appointed by the pope, or with his approbation, to prepare rules of business, etc., for a general council. In the General Council of Constance the congregation was differently constituted, the Council being divided into congregations according to the nationalities represented—German, French, Italian, English, and subsequently Spanish. These voted separately, preliminary to the final action of the Council as a whole.
10. n. See Lords of the Congregation, below.
11. n. In universities, the body of the masters regent. The great congregation is the body of all the masters, regent and not regent. The house of congregation is the assembly of the congregation. The function of the congregation is to grant degrees, graces, and dispensations. But in some universities from the first, and in others at present, the congregation has been otherwise constituted and has additional functions.
12. n. In falconry, a flock or flight of plovers.
13. n. The coming together of the elements of a population by immigration, as opposed to the growth of a population by a birth-rate in excess of a death-rate. It is an aggregation of individuals or of families that have not been living together from their birth, and that therefore come together as partial or entire strangers. Giddings, Prin. of Sociol., p. 91. See genetic aggregation.

Wiktionary

1. n. A gathering of faithful in a temple, church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship. It can also refer to the people who are present at a devotional service in the building, particularly in contrast to the pastor, minister, imam, rabbi etc. and/or choir, who may be seated apart from the general congregation or lead the service (notably in responsary form).
2. n. A Roman Congregation, a main department of the Vatican administration of the universal church
3. n. A corporate body whose members gather for worship, or the members of such a body.
4. n. Any large gathering of people
5. n. The collective noun for eagles.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of congregating, or bringing together, or of collecting into one aggregate or mass.
2. n. A collection or mass of separate things.
3. n. An assembly of persons; a gathering; esp. an assembly of persons met for the worship of God, and for religious instruction; a body of people who habitually so meet.
4. n. (Anc. Jewish Hist.) The whole body of the Jewish people; -- called also Congregation of the Lord.
5. n. A body of cardinals or other ecclesiastics to whom as intrusted some department of the church business.
6. n. A company of religious persons forming a subdivision of a monastic order.
7. n. engraving The assemblage of Masters and Doctors at Oxford or Cambrige University, mainly for the granting of degrees.
8. n. (Scotch Church Hist.) the name assumed by the Protestant party under John Knox. The leaders called themselves (1557) Lords of the Congregation.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the act of congregating
2. n. a group of people who adhere to a common faith and habitually attend a given church
3. n. an assemblage of people or animals or things collected together