CHAPTER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does chapter mean? 

• CHAPTER (noun)
  The noun CHAPTER has 5 senses:

1. a subdivision of a written work; usually numbered and titled

2. any distinct period in history or in a person's life

3. a local branch of some fraternity or association

4. an ecclesiastical assembly of the monks in a monastery or even of the canons of a church

5. a series of related events forming an episode

  Familiarity information: CHAPTER used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHAPTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A subdivision of a written work; usually numbered and titled

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

he read a chapter every night before falling asleep

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

section; subdivision (a self-contained part of a larger composition (written or musical))

Holonyms ("chapter" is a part of...):

text; textual matter (the words of something written)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any distinct period in history or in a person's life

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

the divorce was an ugly chapter in their relationship

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

phase; stage (any distinct time period in a sequence of events)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A local branch of some fraternity or association

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

he joined the Atlanta chapter

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

club; gild; guild; lodge; order; social club; society (a formal association of people with similar interests)

Holonyms ("chapter" is a member of...):

association (a formal organization of people or groups of people)

frat; fraternity (a social club for male undergraduates)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An ecclesiastical assembly of the monks in a monastery or even of the canons of a church

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

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

assembly (a group of persons who are gathered together for a common purpose)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A series of related events forming an episode

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

a chapter of disasters

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

episode (a happening that is distinctive in a series of related events)

 Context examples 

Don’t despair, however. The last chapter of a Saturn visit is usually easier than the first two years—you have learned a lot about coping with Saturn’s challenges.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Peggotty meant her nephew Ham, mentioned in my first chapter; but she spoke of him as a morsel of English Grammar.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I cannot feel that I have done my duty as humble historian of the March family, without devoting at least one chapter to the two most precious and important members of it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The exercise consists of half a chapter of Thucydides.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The agent of the type-writer firm had come for the machine, and he sat on the bed while Martin, on the one chair, typed the last pages of the final chapter.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I read for about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and to change my dress.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Through chapter after chapter he is worried by the one event that cometh to all alike.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A chapter having been read through twice, the books were closed and the girls examined.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

So ended the first chapter of my inquiry.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is a sort of prologue to the play, a motto to the chapter; and will be soon followed by matter-of-fact prose.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)