state church

noun

often capitalized S&C

: established church

Examples of state church in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District rejected the school district’s irrational view that allowing a single public employee to pray by himself was the equivalent of establishing a state church under the establishment clause. —Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 27 June 2022

Before King Charles III ascended to the throne, Queen Elizabeth was the Supreme Governor and Defender of the Faith of the Church of England, the state church of England that broke with Roman Catholicism in the 16th century. —Lyndsey Matthews, Good Housekeeping, 19 Sep. 2022

In each case, the Court recognized, allowing private citizens to choose their own religious faith in the public square is the antithesis of requiring conformity to a state church. —The Editors, National Review, 1 July 2022

As Nelson tells it, the Danish kings basically governed the country through the apparatus of the state church, particularly at the lower levels. —Win McCormack, The New Republic, 30 Dec. 2020

The twin constitutional pillars of religious liberty in the United States — the free-exercise clause and the establishment clause — don’t just protect liberty by disestablishing religion (by preventing the formation of a state church). —David French, National Review, 12 Sep. 2019

Thanks to the state church, Britain also had unusually good birth and death records. —Kelsey Piper, Vox, 20 Aug. 2019

Uncensored printing offered the possibility of choice, ending the state church’s monopoly on opinion-forming. —The Economist, 4 Nov. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1644, in the meaning defined above