The office, rank, condition, or body of the clergy; the clerical profession or state.
From clerical plus -ture (from Latin -tura, a suffix forming nouns denoting action, state, or result). This rare, formal term appears in historical religious texts and scholarly works.
This word is so archaic and formal that modern dictionaries barely include it—it represents an older style of English where abstract conditions got elaborate noun forms, making it a linguistic fossil from theological writing traditions.
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