Meaning & use
church service
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Meanings
nouncountable
a meeting held in a church where people gather to pray, sing, and listen to religious teaching.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a church service, two church services, or the morning service.
Patterns
- go to a church service
- hold a church service
- a church service for someone
We usually go to a church service on Sunday morning.
The church service lasted about an hour and included several hymns.
They held a special church service to remember the people who died in the flood.
nouncountable or uncountableformal
the official set of words, prayers, and actions used at such a meeting, especially in a particular church.
Grammar: Often with a modifier: the Anglican service, the funeral service, a service in Latin.
Patterns
- a funeral service
- a service in Latin
- the evening service
The funeral service was read by the local vicar.
Some parishes still use the older service on special occasions.
Word forms
| plural | church services |
|---|
Common combinations
- attend a church service
- About two hundred people attended the church service.
- hold a church service
- The school holds a church service at the end of the year.
- go to church service
- She goes to church service every Sunday without fail.
- a church service for somebody
- There will be a church service for Mr. Hayes on Friday.
- the morning/evening service
- The evening service starts at six o'clock.
Synonyms and how they differ
- worship
- Use worship for the activity of praising God in general; a church service is the specific organized meeting.
- mass
- Mass is the usual word for this meeting in the Roman Catholic and some Anglican churches; a church service is the broader, non-denominational term.
- service
- Service alone is common once the context is clear, but on its own it can also mean other kinds of help or a religious ceremony in a synagogue.
Word family
- churchgoer noun
- a person who regularly attends church services.
- churchgoing adjective
- regularly attending church services, as in a churchgoing family.
- chapel service noun
- a similar meeting held in a chapel rather than a church.
Commonly confused: church service or church? church service or service?
church service vs church
Church is the building or the institution; a church service is the meeting or ceremony that happens inside it.
church service vs service
On its own, service often means help given to customers or a bus/train route, so add church to make the religious meaning clear.
Practice
Which sentence uses "church service" correctly?
Choose one answer.
A church service is a religious meeting in a church, so "went to a church service" fits. Option 2 is nonsense, and options 3 and 4 use service in its unrelated 'repair' and 'tip' senses.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “church service”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.