diocese
/ˈdaɪ.ə.sɪs/noun
diocese is spelled D-I-O-C-E-S-E. The wrong spelling people search most is diosese: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 116 of all searches for the word. Diocese is a noun meaning “An administrative division of the later Roman Empire, established by the Herodian tetrarchy”. The plural of diocese is dioceses.
How many letters and syllables are in diocese?
| Letters | 7: D-I-O-C-E-S-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.2 times per million words; the 14,928th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, diosese, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell diocese?
Diocese is spelled D-I-O-C-E-S-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 117 of the searches for diocese in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is diocese?
Diocese appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,928th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce diocese?
- /ˈdaɪ.ə.sɪs/
- /-siz/
Diocese has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-diocese.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of diocese
- dioceses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does diocese mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An administrative division of the later Roman Empire, established by the Herodian tetrarchy.
- 2
An ecclesiastical territory administered by a bishop.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Diocese in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | diocèse , éparchie |
| Portuguese | diocese |
| Spanish | diócesis |
| German | Diözese, Bistum, Eparchie |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does diocese come from?
From Middle English diocise, from Old French diocese, from Late Latin diocēsis, from Latin dioecēsis (“district under a governor”), from Ancient Greek διοίκησις (dioíkēsis, “internal administration”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).