sermon Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an address of a religious nature (usually delivered during a church service)
    discourse; preaching.
  2. noun a moralistic rebuke
    preaching.
    • your preaching is wasted on him

WordNet

Ser"mon noun
Etymology
OE. sermoun, sermun, F. sermon, fr. L. sermo, -onis, a speaking, discourse, probably fr. serer, sertum, to join, connect; hence, a connected speech. See Series.
Definitions
  1. A discourse or address; a talk; a writing; as, the sermens of Chaucer. Obs. Chaucer.
  2. Specifically, a discourse delivered in public, usually by a clergyman, for the purpose of religious instruction and grounded on some text or passage of Scripture.
    This our life exempt from public haunts Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones and good in everything. Shak.
    His preaching much, but more his practice, wrought, A living sermon of the truths he taught. Dryden.
  3. Hence, a serious address; a lecture on one's conduct or duty; an exhortation or reproof; a homily; -- often in a depreciatory sense.
Ser"mon intransitive verb
Etymology
Cf. OF. sermoner, F. sermonner to lecture one.
Definitions
  1. To speak; to discourse; to compose or deliver a sermon. Obs. Holinshed.
    What needeth it to sermon of it more? Chaucer.
Ser"mon transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To discourse to or of, as in a sermon. Obs. Spenser.
  2. To tutor; to lecture. Poetic Shak.

Webster 1913