• enPR: sĭn'əd, IPA: /ˈsɪn.əd/

synod (plural synods)

1. An ecclesiastic council or meeting to consult on church matters.
2. An administrative division of churches, either the entire denomination, as in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, or a mid-level division (middle judicatory, district) as in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
3. An assembly or council having civil authority; a legislative body.
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene i]:

     It hath in solemn synods been decreed.

   • Parent of gods and men, propitious Jove! And you, bright synod of the powers above.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 6”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     A third part of the Gods, in synod met

     Their deities to assert; who, while they feel

     Vigour divine within them, can allow

     Omnipotence to none.

4. (astronomy) A conjunction of two or more of the heavenly bodies.

• French: synode
• German: Synode
• Italian: sinodo
• Portuguese: sínodo
• Russian: сино́д
• Spanish: sínodo

• Portuguese: sínodo