chapel

What it means

1. especiallyChristianityA place of worship, smaller than or subordinate to a church.
2. A place of worship in another building or within a civil institution such as a larger church, airport, prison, monastery, school, etc.; often primarily for private prayer.

   One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

3. UKA place of worship of a denomination not in conformity with the Church of England, usually Protestant; for example, of Nonconformist or Dissenter congregations.

In a sentence

One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

Where it comes from

1. Late Latincappella“little cloak; chapel”
2. Old Frenchchapele
3. Middle Englishchapele
4. Englishchapel

From Middle English chapele, chapel, from Old French chapele, from Late Latin cappella (“little cloak; chapel”), diminutive of cappa (“cloak, cape”). Doublet of capelle. Displaced native Old English bēdhūs. (printing office): Said to be because printing was first carried on in England in a chapel near Westminster Abbey.