| / English Dictionary |
CLERGYMAN
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church
Synonyms:
clergyman; man of the cloth; reverend
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("clergyman" is a kind of...):
spiritual leader (a leader in religious or sacred affairs)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "clergyman"):
vicar ((Episcopal Church) a clergyman in charge of a chapel)
vicar ((Church of England) a clergyman appointed to act as priest of a parish)
subdeacon (a clergyman an order below deacon; one of the Holy Orders in the unreformed western Christian church and the eastern Catholic Churches but now suppressed in the Roman Catholic Church)
shepherd (a clergyman who watches over a group of people)
priest (a clergyman in Christian churches who has the authority to perform or administer various religious rites; one of the Holy Orders)
preacher; preacher man; sermoniser; sermonizer (someone whose occupation is preaching the gospel)
postulator ((Roman Catholic Church) someone who proposes or pleads for a candidate for beatification or canonization)
ordinary (a clergyman appointed to prepare condemned prisoners for death)
ordinand (a person being ordained)
officiant (a clergyman who officiates at a religious ceremony or service)
lector; reader (someone who reads the lessons in a church service; someone ordained in a minor order of the Roman Catholic Church)
doorkeeper; ostiarius; ostiary (the lowest of the minor Holy Orders in the unreformed Western Church but now suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church)
domine; dominee; dominie; dominus (a clergyman; especially a settled minister or parson)
deacon (a cleric ranking just below a priest in Christian churches; one of the Holy Orders)
curate; minister; minister of religion; parson; pastor; rector (a person authorized to conduct religious worship)
churchman; cleric; divine; ecclesiastic (a clergyman or other person in religious orders)
chaplain (a clergyman ministering to some institution)
archdeacon ((Anglican Church) an ecclesiastical dignitary usually ranking just below a bishop)
anagnost (a cleric in the minor orders of the Eastern Orthodox Church who reads the lessons aloud in the liturgy (analogous to the lector in the Roman Catholic Church))
acolyte (someone who assists a priest or minister in a liturgical service; a cleric ordained in the highest of the minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church but not in the Anglican Church or the Eastern Orthodox Churches)
Instance hyponyms:
John Wesley; Wesley (English clergyman and founder of Methodism (1703-1791))
King; Martin Luther King; Martin Luther King Jr. (United States charismatic civil rights leader and Baptist minister who campaigned against the segregation of Blacks (1929-1968))
Charles Wesley; Wesley (English clergyman and brother of John Wesley who wrote many hymns (1707-1788))
Roger Williams; Williams (English clergyman and colonist who was expelled from Massachusetts for criticizing Puritanism; he founded Providence in 1636 and obtained a royal charter for Rhode Island in 1663 (1603-1683))
John Keble; Keble (English clergyman who (with John Henry Newman and Edward Pusey) founded the Oxford movement (1792-1866))
Donne; John Donne (English clergyman and metaphysical poet celebrated as a preacher (1572-1631))
Beecher; Henry Ward Beecher (United States clergyman who was a leader for the abolition of slavery (1813-1887))
Holonyms ("clergyman" is a member of...):
clergy (in Christianity, clergymen collectively (as distinguished from the laity))
Antonym:
layman (someone who is not a clergyman or a professional person)
Context examples:
The idea of Edward's being a clergyman, and living in a small parsonage-house, diverted him beyond measure;—and when to that was added the fanciful imagery of Edward reading prayers in a white surplice, and publishing the banns of marriage between John Smith and Mary Brown, he could conceive nothing more ridiculous.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
At this period she married, removed with her husband (a clergyman, an excellent man, almost worthy of such a wife) to a distant county, and consequently was lost to me.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But a parish has wants and claims which can be known only by a clergyman constantly resident, and which no proxy can be capable of satisfying to the same extent.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Her father was a clergyman, without being neglected, or poor, and a very respectable man, though his name was Richard—and he had never been handsome.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Even after I became suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind old clergyman.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Once a clergyman, always a clergyman.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Mr. Mortimer Tregennis was more self-contained than the clergyman, but the twitching of his thin hands and the brightness of his dark eyes showed that they shared a common emotion.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Indiaman in distress; and you shall go there another day, and find them deep in the evidence, pro and con, respecting a clergyman who has misbehaved himself; and you shall find the judge in the nautical case, the advocate in the clergyman's case, or contrariwise.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
A fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine de Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect which he felt for her high rank, and his veneration for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of his authority as a clergyman, and his right as a rector, made him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The lawyer plods, quite care-worn; the physician is up at all hours, and travelling in all weather; and even the clergyman— she stopt a moment to consider what might do for the clergyman;—and even the clergyman, you know is obliged to go into infected rooms, and expose his health and looks to all the injury of a poisonous atmosphere.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
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