churchlike

comparative more churchlike · superlative most churchlike

1. Resembling or befitting a church or a worship service.

   The court was filled. Some people even stood behind the churchlike benches in the rear.

   1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 13, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 69

   3 more examples

   The new part, containing the schoolroom and dormitory, was lit by mullioned and latticed windows, which gave it a church-like aspect […]

   1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 5, in Jane Eyre

   There are churchlike or synagoguelike chapels and leaders who deliver Sunday sermons, perform pastoral duties, and conduct "services," though without prayer to a deity.

   1991 September 28, Paul Kurtz, “The Two Humanisms in Conflict: Religious vs. Secular”, in Free Inquiry, volume 11, number 4, page 49

   This is […] a break with the practice at American diamond stores, where shopping for engagement rings is a solemnized and somewhat stressfully churchlike experience of awe and trembling before the altar of massive debt.

   2009 January 29, Cintra Wilson, “These Jewels Look Smaller in France”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: churchical, churchly, churchy, ecclesiastical, churchical, churchish, churchly, churchy