curia

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One of the ten primitive subdivisions of a tribe in early Rome, consisting of ten gentes.
2. n. The assembly place of such a subdivision.
3. n. The Roman senate or any of the various buildings in which it met in republican Rome.
4. n. The place of assembly of high councils in various Italian cities under Roman administration.
5. n. The ensemble of central administrative and governmental services in imperial Rome.
6. n. Roman Catholic Church The central administration governing the Church.
7. n. A medieval assembly or council.
8. n. A medieval royal court of justice.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In Roman antiquity: One of the divisions of the citizens of Rome, with reference to locality. The number of the curiæ is given as thirty, but the original number was smaller.
2. n. The building in which a curia met for worship or public deliberation. The building in which the senate held its deliberations. A title given to the senate of any one of the Italian cities, as distinguished from the Roman senate.
3. n. In medieval legal use, a court, either judicial, administrative, or legislative; a court of justice. In the Norman period of English history the Curia Regis was an assembly which the king was bound to consult on important state matters, and whose consent was necessary for the enactment of laws, the imposition of extraordinary taxes, etc. It consisted nominally of the tenants in chief, but practically it was much more limited. Originally the Curia Regis and the Exchequer were composed of the same persons. From the Curia Regis there developed later the Ordinary Council or Privy Council, and the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas. Also Aula Regia or Regis.
4. n. Specifically, in modern use, the court of the papal see.

Wiktionary

1. n. historical Any of the subdivisions of a tribe in ancient Rome
2. n. historical The Roman senate during the republic
3. n. historical Any of several medieval councils or courts of justice

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One of the thirty parts into which the Roman people were divided by Romulus.
2. n. The place of assembly of one of these divisions.
3. n. The place where the meetings of the senate were held; the senate house.
4. n. (Middle Ages) The court of a sovereign or of a feudal lord; also; his residence or his household.
5. n. (Law) Any court of justice.
6. n. The Roman See in its temporal aspects, including all the machinery of administration; -- called also curia Romana.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (Roman Catholic Church) the central administration governing the Roman Catholic Church