Communicants

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who receive communion in a religious context
2. those participating in a sacramental act, often within Christianity
3. members of a congregation engaging in a shared spiritual rite

Etymology: Communicants are, at root, people who share something in common, and the Latin verb behind the word, "communicare," meant "to share" or "to make common," drawn from "communis," which gave English "common" and "community." Within the Church, the sense narrowed to those who partake of the sacred meal, so that a congregation's communicants are the people who receive communion, as distinct from the baptized who have not yet done so or who have been barred from it. The word entered English in the Middle Ages through Latin ecclesiastical usage, where "communicans" was used of those receiving the sacrament, and it kept the idea of sharing in the sacred rite that the Latin root had carried. A medieval church communicant was therefore someone who literally took part in the shared bread and wine, and the word's meaning still follows that participation rather than general membership.

Synonyms: participants, members