sacerdocy means the priesthood. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “sacerdocy” is a great word
The office, character, and dignity of a priest. From the Latin sacerdotium ("the priesthood"), from sacerdos ("a priest"), from sacer ("sacred, holy"). First attested in English around 1706. Unlike "clergy," a broad term for the ordained collective, or "laity," its encompassing antonym for the unordained, sacerdocy is the abstract weight of the sacred office itself. It is the solemn drape of the vestment, the exacting choreography of the ritual, and the profound isolation of the one set apart to mediate between the human and the divine—a mantle of grace that is also a sentence of perpetual otherness.
Etymology
From Latin sacerdotium (“the priesthood”), from sacerdos (“a priest”), from sacer (“sacred, holy”).
noun
- the priesthood
- a priestly office or character