Bap′tis-ter-y.
（Architecture.) A building appertaining to a cathedral or church, or a portion of the church itself, in which the ceremony of baptism is performed. If a separate building, the baptistery was, in the earlier ages, either hexagonal or octagonal in plan; afterwards they were made polygonal, or even circular. When within the church, it is merely the inclosure containing the font, as in English churches of the present day.
