chapter
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈt͡ʃæptə(r)/
ipa: /ˈt͡ʃæptɚ/
rhymes: -æptə(ɹ)
Forms: form: chapters
form: chapiter
form: chapitre
form: chapiture
form: chaptre
form: chapyter
form: chapytre
form: chaptire
Etymology: From Middle English chapitre, from Old French chapitre, from Latin capitulum (“a chapter of a book, in Medieval Latin also a synod or council”), diminutive of caput (“a head”); see capital, capitulum, and chapiter, which are doublets of chapter.
Senses: examples: text: Detective novel writers try to keep up the suspense until the last chapter.
text: At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy ; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
text: The story that unfolds through 70 chapters featuring intense tactical battles is full of plot twists and turns.
ref: 2003 December 24, “Fire Emblem”, in Nintendo Power, volume 174, Strategy with a Story, page 33:
glosses: One of the main sections into which a published work is divided, especially a book.
examples: text: CHAPTER - One of the principal divisions of a book, and, in reference to the Bible, one of the larger sections into which its books are divided. This division, as well as that consisting of verses, was introduced to facilitate reference, and not to indicate any natural or accurate division of the subjects treated in the books.
ref: 1842, Walter Farquahar Hook, A Church Dictionary, published 1896:
text: At least thirty-two of the first forty-seven decretal chapters were received by English ecclesiastics,
ref: 1963, Charles Duggan, Twelfth-century Decretal Collections and Their Importance in English History, page 127:
text: il conclut: « No pope, no collection but the masters who served the one and commented on the other ultimately determined the content of this decretal chapter».
ref: 1983, Revue théologique de Louvain - Volume 14, page 127:
text: But unlike a similar annotation, it has not been turned into a chapter title because the annotation “de quodam hermita” (Of a certain hermit) immediately preceded it. If a scribe had also turned Liberauit Dominus hermitam into a chapter title, he would have created a chapter that consisted of a single sentence, which even for a rather dull scribe would seem unacceptable. […] While scribe A wrote the body of the text of the De nugis curialium, scribe X contributed the rubricated chapter headings.
ref: 2017, Joshua Byron Smith, Walter Map and the Matter of Britain, page 67:
text: While rubrics do not appear in paper manuscripts, eight paper manuscripts contain chapter titles, which serve the same function as the medieval rubrics.
ref: 2018, Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, Emily Lethbridge, New Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njáls saga, page xvii:
text: Characteristics: parchment; 92 fols.; 260 × 180 mm.; 32 lines; Italy; ca. 1430; two hands: humanistic rotunda with some Gothic features; marginal notes by first hand and names by a second hand; space left for initials; rubric inscriptions; superscript variants by first hand; chapters marked in margin; horizontal catchwords; quaternions.
ref: 2018, David J. Hunt, A Textual History of Cicero's Academici Libri, page 152:
text: From canon law, he cited Gratian's Decretum, Gregory's Decretales, the Sexto and Clementines Decretales, and the Extravagantes, and specifically referred to “the rules for understanding the Law” in a decretal chapter on Propterea.
ref: 2021, David T. Orique, The Unheard Voice of Law in Bartolomé de Las Casas’s Brevísima Relación de la Destruición de las Indias, page 97:
glosses: One of the main sections into which a published work is divided, especially a book.
A section of a work, a collection of works, or fragments of works, often manuscripts or transcriptions, created by scholars or advocates, not the original authors, to aid in finding portions of the texts.
glosses: Certain ecclesiastical bodies (under canon law)
An assembly of monks, prebendaries and/or other clergymen connected with a cathedral, conventual or collegiate church, or of a diocese, usually presided over by the dean.
glosses: Certain ecclesiastical bodies (under canon law)
A community of canons or canonesses.
glosses: Certain ecclesiastical bodies (under canon law)
A bishop's council.
glosses: A section of a social body.
An administrative division of an organization, usually local to a specific area.
examples: text: If the By-Law which admits honorary members is silent upon their rights, they may perhaps be determined by a consideration of which of these classes was intended by the Chapter in admitting them
ref: 1862, The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine:
glosses: A section of a social body.
An organized branch of some society or fraternity, such as the Freemasons.
glosses: A meeting of a chapter of certain organized societies or orders.
glosses: A chapter house
examples: text: 1866, Wilkie Collins, Armadale, Book the Last, Chapter I,
"You know that Mr. Armadale is alive," pursued the doctor, "and you know that he is coming back to England. Why do you continue to wear your widow's dress?" ¶ She answered him without an instant's hesitation, steadily going on with her work. ¶ "Because I am of a sanguine disposition, like you. I mean to trust to the chapter of accidents to the very last. Mr. Armadale may die yet, on his way home."
text: […]she determined to go on slowly towards Castra Regis, and trust to the chapter of accidents to pick up the trail again.
ref: 1911, Bram Stoker, chapter 26, in The Lair of the White Worm:
text: With the entry into service of the '777s', a new chapter opens in the long history of Merseyside's electric suburban railwsys.
ref: 2023 February 8, Tony Streeter, “Kirkdale: home to Merseyrail's new '777s'”, in RAIL, number 976, page 36:
glosses: A sequence (of events), especially when presumed related and likely to continue.
examples: text: In his bosom! In what chapter of his bosom?
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
glosses: A location or compartment.
topics: Catholicism
Christianity
Roman-Catholicism
synonyms: capitule
glosses: A prescribed reading at one of the canonical hours.
Synonyms: word: ch.
word: chpt.
Derived terms: chapter and verse
chapter book
chapterful
chapter house
chapterlike
chapter of accidents
chapter out
chapterplay
chapterwise
dean and chapter
go Chapter 11
interchapter
microchapter
midchapter
multichapter
subchapter
to the end of the chapter
Related terms: capital
capitalism
capitulate
capitulation
captain
chapiter
per capita
overarching
rubric
marginalia
magerina