chancel

IPA: tʃˈænsʌɫ

The space around the altar in a church, often enclosed, for use by the clergy and the choir. In medieval cathedrals the chancel was usually enclosed or blocked off from the nave by an altar screen.
A surname

Examples of "chancel" in Sentences

These walls were called cancelli, hence the English word "chancel".
The east end was called the chancel and it was shorter than the nave.
In a later time the name chancel came to be applied to the presbyterium itself.
If you remember, each corner of the chancel, is supported by a large brick buttress.
The chancel is short, there are no quire aisles, and the transept apses were rounded externally.
Beyond the crossing, the east end of the church was called the chancel, and was mainly reserved for the monks.
At the side of the chancel was a new idol: a heavy, seated figure of Huitzilopochtli, done in black lava stone.
The sound of the monks chanting the service of sext in the chancel was a low murmur like the rushing of a distant waterfall.
These could be identified as chancel piers, the vertical elements that held the plates closing off the chancel or bema, i.e. the area around the altar at the eastern end of a church.
There are two tombs in the body of the place; but none in the chancel, which is bare, except for the tall candlesticks, and the chancel rail, beyond which is the undraped altar of solid marble, upon which stand four small candlesticks, two at each end.