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Mosques were known to the English-speaking world long before we called them mosques. In the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, we used many different variations of the word—moseak, muskey, moschy, mos’keh, among others—until we finally hit on mosquee, emulating Middle French. The Middle French word had come by way of Italian and Old Spanish from the Arabic word for "temple," which is masjid. In the early 1700s, we settled on the present spelling, and mosque thus joined other English words related to Muslim worship: mihrab, for the special niche in a mosque that points towards Mecca; minaret, for the tall slender tower of a mosque; and muezzin, for the crier who, standing in the minaret, calls the hour of daily prayers.

Examples of mosque in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Hundreds of Palestinians, mostly young men, were arrested at the mosque over the past two weeks, accused of rioting. — New York Times, 29 Apr. 2022 Other questions from an audience that listened to the guest speaker at the mosque’s large prayer hall included the significance of the month. — Yadira Sanchez Olson, Chicago Tribune, 25 Apr. 2022 Police described the recent throwing of fireworks from inside the mosque, at least one of which caused a small fire in a carpet, as an act of desecration. — Andrew Carey, Abeer Salman And Hadas Gold, CNN, 21 Apr. 2022 Video released by police showed small groups of youths throwing stones, as well as fireworks being fired from inside the mosque. — Time, 17 Apr. 2022 Video released by police showed small groups of youths throwing stones, as well as fireworks being fired from inside the mosque. — Josef Federman, ajc, 17 Apr. 2022 Video released by police showed small groups of youths throwing stones, as well as fireworks being fired from inside the mosque. — Josef Federman, chicagotribune.com, 17 Apr. 2022 More than 50,000 people offered prayers at the mosque in the afternoon, according to the Israeli police. — Shalom Goodman, WSJ, 15 Apr. 2022 Others showed worshippers barricading themselves inside the mosque. — Fox News, 15 Apr. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mosque.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.