Definition of "Pentecost"

Pentecost

/ˈpɛntɪkɔst/

proper noun
plural Pentecosts
1. The Jewish festival of Shavuot.
  Quotations
  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Acts 2:1
  The first lesson for the morning contains the law of the Jewish Pentecost, or Feast of Weeks, which was a type of ours.
  1854, Walter Farquhar Hook, A Church Dictionary
  Because Shavuot is celebrated on the fiftieth day after the advent of Passover, it has been called Pentecost, a Greek word meaning “fiftieth [day]".
  2005, Alfred J Kolatch, A Handbook for the Jewish Home
2. The particular (Jewish) Pentecost 49 days (inclusive) after the resurrection of Jesus on the (Jewish) Day of First Fruits, when (in Christian teaching) the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles with miraculous effects including the ability to explain the Gospel intelligibly in languages they did not know; or a similar occasion since.
  Quotations
  He spoke either Latin or Welsh; and the Sicambri spoke the antient Teutonic. Remi, in all appearance, renewed the miracle of the Pentecost: Et unusquisquis intendebat linguam suam, And each understood his own language.
  1762, Voltaire, William Vade included in Works
  If it be supposed that the divinity of Christ was unknown to the apostles till the day of Pentecost ... we have no account of any such discovery having been made.
  1786, Joseph Priestley, An History of Early Opinions Concerning Jesus Christ: Compiled from Original Writers; Proving that the Christian Church was at first Unitarian
  They think a new Pentecost is afoot, in which the Holy Spirit brings millions the good news of salvation in the hereafter and real blessings in the here and now.
  2005, Frank J Lechner, John Boli, World Culture: Origins and Consequences
3. The Christian festival (also known as Whitsun or Whitsunday), which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles.
  Quotations
  Spiritual profits, commonly called whitsun-farthings, ... offered at the time of pentecost.
  1797, Richard Burn, Simon Fraser, Ecclesiastical Law
  Shavuot is linked to Passover in the same way that Pentecost is linked to Easter, by a period of seven weeks.
  2005, Edward Kessler, Neil Wenborn, editors, A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations
  The specific event which is commemorated at Pentecost is the coming of the Holy Spirit, which is described in the Acts of the Apostles.
  2006, Alister E McGrath, Christianity: An Introduction
4. Pentecostal manifestation, such as in a church service.
5. A surname.