How to pronounce clerisy
American English pronunciation
KLAIR-ih-see
- IPA
- /ˈklɛɹɪsi/
- Syllables
- KLAIR · ih · see (3 syllables, stress on the 1st)
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What clerisy means
The educated, thinking people of a land, taken as a group
In a sentence: The town's clerisy of teachers, writers and librarians met every week to talk about new books.
Where it comes from: The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge brought it into English. He based it on a German word that goes back to Latin clericus, a churchman, and in the end to a Greek word for a share or lot.
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