/ English Dictionary |
INQUISITION
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A severe interrogation (often violating the rights or privacy of individuals)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("inquisition" is a kind of...):
examination; interrogation; interrogatory (formal systematic questioning)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A former tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church (1232-1820) created to discover and suppress heresy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("Inquisition" is a kind of...):
court; judicature; tribunal (an assembly (including one or more judges) to conduct judicial business)
Instance hyponyms:
Spanish Inquisition (an inquisition initiated in 1478 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that guarded the orthodoxy of Catholicism in Spain (especially from the 15th to the 17th centuries))
Congregation of the Inquisition; Roman Inquisition (an inquisition set up in Italy in 1542 to curb the number of Protestants)