classis

plural classes

1. obsoleteA class or order; sort; type; kind.

   […]declared his own opinion of that classis of men.

   1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater

2. lifestyleAn ecclesiastical body or judicatory in certain churches, such as the Dutch Reformed Church. It is intermediate between the consistory and the synod, and corresponds to the presbytery in the Presbyterian church.

   At Utrecht and Breda there was strong pressure from the Dutch Reformed Church to exclude from employment British preachers who refused to take membership in the classis.

   1982, Keith L. Sprunger, Dutch Puritanism

3. biologyA category in the classification of organisms, ranking below divisio and above ordo.

   Synonyms: class