Dictionary

ecumenical en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˌɛk.jʊˈmɛ.nɪ.kəl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˌiːk.jʊˈmɛ.nɪ.kəl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˌɛk.jʊˈmɛ.nɪ.kəl/ (General-American)

Etymology

From ecumenic + -al. By surface analysis, ecumene + -ical.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) Pertaining to the universal Church, representing the entire Christian world; interdenominational; sometimes by extension, interreligious.
   • Nicaea has always been regarded as one of the milestones in the history of the Church, and reckoned as the first council to be styled ‘general’ or ‘oecumenical’. 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, Penguin, published 2010, page 215:
   • Rather touchingly, an ecumenical mass of reparation for the victims of the massacres was held on October 29, in the very English village of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire. The service was led by the Catholic bishop of Northampton, with Archbishop Metropolitan Stres from Ljubljana and the Anglican bishop of Buckingham. 2010 October 30, “Britain's Ancient Shame in Slovenia”, in The Economist, London:
   • Within Europe, the church's ecumenical partnerships have demonstrated that ecclesial unity may have political resonances. 1999 June 5, Martyn Percy, “St Albion's Utd”, in The Guardian, London, retrieved 29 Jan 2022:
   • [William] Wake’s immense correspondence on behalf of Christian unity has been analysed fully, if not definitively, by Norman Sykes, and related to the situations in France, Switzerland, and Germany, but we may adventure a comment upon it without recapitulating an intricate, and like ecumenical narratives generally, often tedious, story. 1986, [Ernest] Gordon Rupp, “Conversations”, in Religion in England 1688–1791 (Oxford History of the Christian Church), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, part I (‘Names and Sects and Parties’), chapter 5 (Church of England Men), pages 77–78:
2. (not-comparable, rare) General; universal; catholic; worldwide.

Forms

Coordinates

cosmopolitan · international

Deriveds

ecumenically · ecumenical movement · protoecumenical · ecumaniac · ecumenism · nonecumenical · ecumenicity · ecumenicist · ecumenicalism · ecumenicism · unecumenical · Ecumenical Patriarch · ecumenical council

Synonyms

universal · worldwide

Translations (46)

cs univerzální (general, universal, worldwide) · tl malukubin (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · es ecuménico (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · fr œcuménique (general, universal, worldwide) · tr ekümenik (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · nb økumenisk (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · pl ekumeniczny (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · fur ecumenic (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · fur ecumenic (general, universal, worldwide) · pt ecuménico (general, universal, worldwide) · sv ekumenisk (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · bg вселенски (general, universal, worldwide) · fr œcuménique (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · sl ekumenski (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · hu egyetemes (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · gd uil-eaglaiseil (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · gd uile-choitcheann (general, universal, worldwide) · pt ecumênico (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · ru вселе́нский (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · gv eddyr-agglishagh (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · ru экуменический (general, universal, worldwide) · id ekumenis (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · nrf êtchuménique (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · de ökumenisch (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · pl ekumeniczny (general, universal, worldwide) · hu ökumenikus (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · fi universaali (general, universal, worldwide) · nrf êtchuménique (general, universal, worldwide) · da økumenisk (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · af universeel (general, universal, worldwide) · hu egyetemes (general, universal, worldwide) · ca ecumènic (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · nn økumenisk (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · it ecumenico (general, universal, worldwide) · pt ecumênico (general, universal, worldwide) · hu ökumenikus (general, universal, worldwide) · nl oecumenisch (general, universal, worldwide) · fi ekumeeninen (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · ro ecumenic (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · tr ekümenik (general, universal, worldwide) · ca ecumènic (general, universal, worldwide) · it ecumenico (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · pt ecuménico (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · nl oecumenisch (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · cs ekumenický (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense) · af ekumenies (ecclesiastical: pertaining to the Christian Church in a worldwide sense)