Definition of "synagogue" []

• A building or place of meeting for worship and religious instruction in the Jewish faith. (noun)
• A congregation of Jews for the purpose of worship or religious study. (noun)
• The Jewish religion as organized or typified in local congregations. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It's a sacredness that reminds us why the word synagogue in Greek and beit knesset in Hebrew were chosen by Jews many centuries ago."
• "It seems probable that the council was the larger tribunal of twenty-three, which sat in every city, and that under the term synagogue we are to understand a smaller court, probably that of the ten judges mentioned in the Talmud."
• "If a synagogue is attacked, I guarantee that within minutes the airwaves will be filled with insinuating voices insisting that the “root cause” of the crime was a rational anger at the behaviour of Israel or the Jewish diaspora."