1. (n.)basilica an early Christian or medieval church characterized by an oblong plan including a nave with a clerestory, two or four side aisles, one or more vaulted semicircular apses, and often a narthex and atrium.
2. basilica one of the seven main churches of Rome or another Roman Catholic church accorded the same religious privileges.
3. basilica (in ancient Rome) an oblong building with a double colonnade used as a court of law and public meeting place.
Etymology: (1535–45; < L < Gk basilikē (oikía) lit., royal (house). See basil)
Definition of 'basilica'
Princeton's WordNet
1. (noun)basilica an early Christian church designed like a Roman basilica; or a Roman Catholic church or cathedral accorded certain privileges "the church was raised to the rank of basilica"
2. (noun)basilica, Roman basilica a Roman building used for public administration
Definition of 'basilica'
Webster Dictionary
1. (noun)basilica originally, the place of a king; but afterward, an apartment provided in the houses of persons of importance, where assemblies were held for dispensing justice; and hence, any largehall used for this purpose
2. (noun)basilica a building used by the Romans as a place of public meeting, with court rooms, etc., attached
3. (noun)basilica a church building of the earlier centuries of Christianity, the plan of which was taken from the basilica of the Romans. The name is still applied to some churches by way of honorary distinction
4. (noun)basilica a digest of the laws of Justinian, translated from the originalLatin into Greek, by order of Basil I., in the ninthcentury
Definitions of 'basilica'
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
1. basilica the code of laws, in 60 books, compiled by Basil I., and Leo, his son and successor, first published in 887, and named after the former.
2. basilica a spacious hall, twice as long as broad, for publicbusiness and the administration of justice, originally open to the sky, but eventually covered in, and with the judge's bench at the end opposite the entrance, in a circularapse added to it. They were first erected by the Romans, 180 B.C.; afterwards, on the adoption of Christianity, they were converted into churches, the altarbeing in the apse.
Definitions of basilica 
