noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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/ˈklɛɹɪsi/
rhymes with -ɛəɹɪsi
1
noun
Meaning 1
An elite group of intellectuals; learned people, the literati.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Examples
2003: By the nineteenth-century clerisy [...] Christianity itself, yoked to material civilization, came to be questioned as gross and vulgar. — Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (Penguin 2004, p. 432)
2016: Only the highly educated write so badly. Indeed, the point of such ludicrous prose is to signal membership in a closed clerisy that possesses a private language. — George F. Will, Washington Post, 18 Nov, 2016
2022: We invent ourselves as American writers—it's not a clerisy we’re born into... — Edward Hirsch, The Heart of American Poetry (Library of America, 2022)
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
The clergy, or their opinions, as opposed to the laity.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
an educated and intellectual elite
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: intelligentsia
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: elite, elite group
Narrower terms: culturati, literati
History
Etymology
From Ancient Greek κλῆρος (klêros) + -isy. Introduced by Coleridge, based on German Clerisei (modern Klerisei), from Late Latin clēricus.
