A meeting house (also spelled meetinghouse or meeting-house) is a building for religious, public, or private meetings. It is primarily associated with Christian worship of certain movements after the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, or later movements that developed on a Christian basis.
Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a church, which is a group of people who believe in Christ, and a meeting house or chapel, which is a building where the church meets.
In early Methodism, meeting houses were typically called "preaching houses" (to distinguish them from church houses, which hosted itinerant preachers).
In England, where it originated, a meeting house is distinguished from a church or cathedral by being a place of worship for dissenters or nonconformists.
The colonial meeting house in America was typically the first public building erected as new villages sprang up. A meeting-house had a dual purpose as a place of worship and for public discourse, but sometimes only for "...the service of God." As the towns grew and the separation of church and state in the United States matured, the buildings that were used as the seat of local government were called town-houses or town-halls. Most communities in modern New England still have active meetinghouses, which are popular points of assembly for town meeting days and other events.
The nonconformist meeting houses generally do not have steeples, with the term "steeplehouses" referring to traditional or establishment religious buildings. Christian denominations or religions with Christian roots that use the term "meeting house" to refer to the building in which they hold their worship include: