capel
Sounds roughly like: cap-ell?
IPA: /ˈkapɛl/ ?
CEFR band: A1
Welsh for Adults level: Mynediad/Entry
noun masc. (pl.capeli)
1. a religious building or space
a. a building used, or originally intended, for Christian worship (usually of a Non-conformist denomination)
Mae'r capel wedi sefyll yn y pentre ers 1880.
The chapel has stood in the village since 1880.
Hen gapel sydd nawr yn dŷ gwylie.
An old chapel which is now a holiday home.
b. a chapel as a location for an organized act of Christian worship
Dyn nhw ddim yn mynd i'r capel dim mwy.
They don't go to chapel any more.
Mae'r teulu'n dal i fynd i'r capel.
The family still goes to chapel.
c. a small place of worship which is managed by a larger parish churcha small space within a larger religious building such as a cathedral or monastery (usually one set aside for quiet contemplation or prayer)
Capel sy'n perthyn i eglwys y plwyf.
A chapel belonging to the parish church.
Amser prysur i'r eglwys, pan adeiladon nhw'r capel.
A busy time for the church, when they built the chapel.
d. a small space for Christian worship within a larger, non-religious institution or building (such as a university, prison, airport, or hospital)
Priododd ei gwraig yng nghapel y brifysgol.
She married her wife in the university chapel.
Byddwch chi'n gweld capeli mewn meysydd awyr, carcharoedd, ac ysbytai.
You'll see chapels in airports, prisons, and hospitals.
2. extended senses
2. a chapel considered as a congregation, organization, or community
Pam mae hi mor anodd i gadw pobl yn ein capel ni?
Why is it so hard to keep people in our chapel?
More about capel (click a category to expand...)
Topics and themes?
places of worship
eglwys (church)
mosg (mosque)
synagog (synagogue)
teml (temple)
Mutations
gapel(pl. gapeli)?
chapel(pl. chapeli)?
nhgapel(pl. nghapeli)?
Church or Chapel?

In Wales, there has traditionally been a distinction between the places of worship of the Non-conformist denominations and those of the Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions. The Welsh word capel and its English equivalent "chapel" are usually used for Non-conformist buildings, while eglwys and "church" are mainly used for Anglican and Roman Catholic buildings.

Mae tua hanner y bobl yn mynd i eglwys a'r hanner arall i gapel.

About half the people go to a church and the other half to a chapel.

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The project which inspired this dictionary was carried out by researchers at Cardiff University, in collaboration with the National Centre for Learning Welsh and the WJEC, and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) Impact Acceleration Account (IAA).

The dictionary entries and example sentences are based on data from CorCenCC, the National Corpus of Contemporary Welsh.

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With the exception of quotations taken from CorCenCC, all content of Geirfan by Bethan Tovey-Walsh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This means that you can use the contents of the dictionary in any way you like, as long as you credit Geirfan as the source.