seminary
/ˈsɛmənɛɹi/noun, adjective
seminary is spelled S-E-M-I-N-A-R-Y: 8 letters and 4 syllables. It appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 14,106th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, seminary means “A theological school for the training of rabbis, priests, or ministers” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of seminary is seminaries.
How many letters and syllables are in seminary?
| Letters | 8: S-E-M-I-N-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.5 times per million words; the 14,106th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is seminary?
Seminary appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 14,106th 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 seminary?
- US /ˈsɛmənɛɹi/
- UK /ˈsɛmɪnəɹi/
- UK /ˈsɛmɪnɹi/
Seminary has 4 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-seminary.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of seminary
- seminaries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does seminary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A theological school for the training of rabbis, priests, or ministers.
- 2
A private residential school for girls.
- 3
A class of religious education for youths ages 14–18 that accompanies normal secular education.
- 4
A piece of ground where seed is sown for producing plants for transplantation.
- 5
The place or original stock from which anything is brought or produced.
- 6
obsoleteSeminal state or polity.
- 7
A Roman Catholic priest educated in a foreign seminary; a seminarist.
- 8
archaicAn academic seminar.
adjective
- 1
Of or relating to seed; seminal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate seminary?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of seminary: sem.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Seminary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense theological school:
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 seminary come from?
From Latin sēminārium, from sēmen (“seed”). Compare seminar. In the ground sense, from Middle English semynair, semynary.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).