Gloria

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A Latin doxology beginning with the words Gloria Patri.
• noun A Latin doxology that is the second item of the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass and begins with the words Gloria in excelsis Deo.
• noun A musical setting for either of these doxologies.
• noun A halo or nimbus.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In liturgics, the great doxology (Gloria in Excelsis) or the lesser doxology (Gloria Patri). See below.
• noun A musical setting of one of these doxologies.
• noun In general, a doxology or ascription of praise.
• noun In eccles. art, a glory: often incorrectly used for halo or aureole.
• noun A fabric with a silk warp and a wool or cotton weft, so woven as to throw the silk on the face: used for umbrellas and women's dress-goods.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A doxology (beginning Gloria Patri, Glory be to the Father), sung or said at the end of the Psalms in the service of the Roman Catholic and other churches.
• noun A portion of the Mass (Gloria in Excelsis Deo, Glory be to God on high), and also of the communion service in some churches. In the Episcopal Church the version in English is used.
• noun The musical setting of a gloria.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• proper noun A female given name. Popular during the first half of the 20th century.