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ro·sa·ry

(rōzə-rē)

n. pl. ro·sa·ries

1. Roman Catholic Church

a. A form of devotion to the Virgin Mary, chiefly consisting of three sets of five decades each of the Hail Mary, each decade preceded by the Lord's Prayer and ending with a doxology.

b. One of these sets of decades.

c. A string of beads of 5 or 15 decades on which these prayers are counted.

2. Similar beads used by other religious groups.

[Middle English, rose garden, from Medieval Latin rosārium, rose garden, rosary, from Latin, rose garden, from neuter of rosārius, of roses, from rosa, rose.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

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Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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