BAPTISM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does baptism mean? 

• BAPTISM (noun)
  The noun BAPTISM has 1 sense:

1. a Christian sacrament signifying spiritual cleansing and rebirth

  Familiarity information: BAPTISM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BAPTISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A Christian sacrament signifying spiritual cleansing and rebirth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

most churches baptize infants but some insist on adult baptism

Hypernyms ("baptism" is a kind of...):

sacrament (a formal religious ceremony conferring a specific grace on those who receive it; the two Protestant ceremonies are baptism and the Lord's Supper; in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church there are seven traditional rites accepted as instituted by Jesus: baptism and confirmation and Holy Eucharist and penance and holy orders and matrimony and extreme unction)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "baptism"):

affusion (the act of baptizing someone by pouring water on their head)

aspersion; sprinkling (the act of sprinkling water in baptism (rare))

christening (giving a Christian name at baptism)

immersion (a form of baptism in which part or all of a person's body is submerged)

Derivation:

baptise (administer baptism to)

baptismal (of or relating to baptism)

Baptist (follower of Baptistic doctrines)

baptize (administer baptism to)

 Context examples 

The Count had his own purposes when he gave her what Van Helsing called "the Vampire's baptism of blood."

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I began to fear that the fatal spell of the place was upon her, tainted as she is with that Vampire baptism.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

That terrible baptism of blood which he give you makes you free to go to him in spirit, as you have as yet done in your times of freedom, when the sun rise and set.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)