CHRISTIAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Christian mean? 

• CHRISTIAN (noun)
  The noun CHRISTIAN has 1 sense:

1. a religious person who believes Jesus is the Christ and who is a member of a Christian denomination

  Familiarity information: CHRISTIAN used as a noun is very rare.

• CHRISTIAN (adjective)
  The adjective CHRISTIAN has 2 senses:

1. relating to or characteristic of Christianity

2. following the teachings or manifesting the qualities or spirit of Jesus Christ

  Familiarity information: CHRISTIAN used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHRISTIAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A religious person who believes Jesus is the Christ and who is a member of a Christian denomination

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Christian" is a kind of...):

religious person (a person who manifests devotion to a deity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Christian"):

Adventist; Second Adventist (a member of Christian denomination that expects the imminent advent of Christ)

Tractarian (a follower of Tractarianism and supporter of the Oxford movement (which was expounded in pamphlets called 'Tracts for the Times'))

Shaker (a member of Christian group practicing celibacy and communal living and common possession of property and separation from the world)

Nazarene (an early name for any Christian)

Melchite; Melkite (an eastern Christian in Egypt or Syria who adheres to the Orthodox faith as defined by the council of Chalcedon in 451 and as accepted by the Byzantine emperor)

Melchite; Melkite (an Orthodox Christian or Uniate Christian belonging to the patriarchate of Alexandria or Antioch or Jerusalem)

communicant (a person entitled to receive Communion)

born-again Christian (a Christian who has experienced a dramatic conversion to faith in Jesus)

arianist (an adherent of Arianism (the belief that Jesus Christ was not truly God))

Apostelic Father; Apostle (any important early teacher of Christianity or a Christian missionary to a people)

Apostle ((New Testament) one of the original 12 disciples chosen by Christ to preach his gospel)

Copt (a member of the Coptic Church)

Old Catholic (a member of the church formed in the 19th century by German Catholics who refused to accept the infallibility of the Pope)

Catholic (a member of a Catholic church)

Friend; Quaker (a member of the Religious Society of Friends founded by George Fox (the Friends have never called themselves Quakers))

Protestant (an adherent of Protestantism)

gentile; goy; non-Jew (a Christian as contrasted with a Jew)

gentile (a Christian)

Instance hyponyms:

Timothy (a disciple of Saint Paul who became the leader of the Christian community at Ephesus)

Titus (a Greek disciple and helper of Saint Paul)

Holonyms ("Christian" is a member of...):

Christian church; church (one of the groups of Christians who have their own beliefs and forms of worship)

Derivation:

Christendom (the collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia))

christianly (becoming to or like a Christian)

• CHRISTIAN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or characteristic of Christianity

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

Christian rites

Domain category:

faith; religion; religious belief (a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny)

Pertainym:

Christianity (a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior)

Derivation:

Christ (a teacher and prophet born in Bethlehem and active in Nazareth; his life and sermons form the basis for Christianity (circa 4 BC - AD 29))

Christianity (the collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Following the teachings or manifesting the qualities or spirit of Jesus Christ

Similar:

christianly (becoming to or like a Christian)

christlike; christly (resembling or showing the spirit of Christ)

Antonym:

unchristian (not of a Christian faith)

Derivation:

Christ (a teacher and prophet born in Bethlehem and active in Nazareth; his life and sermons form the basis for Christianity (circa 4 BC - AD 29))

Christianity (a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior)

 Context examples 

Three major overlapping syndromes are recognized: eosinophilic granuloma, Letterer-Siwe disease, and Hand-Schuller-Christian disease.

(Langerhans cell histiocytosis, NCI Thesaurus/WHO)

Had you stayed but a little longer, you would have laid your hand on the Christian's cross and the angel's crown.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

We ought to have our roll of directions, like Christian.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The prospect of marrying a Christian and remaining in a country where women were allowed to take a rank in society was enchanting to her.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I made the captain a very low bow, and then, turning to the Dutchman, said, “I was sorry to find more mercy in a heathen, than in a brother christian.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Even the fact that no one knew his Christian name, seemed to form a part of his respectability.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"I'm glad it's over with," he said. "You've treated me like a Christian, an' I'm thankin' you hearty for your kindness."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Her Christian name: I always forget her Christian name.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

“Well,” said I, “I'll cut you some tobacco, but if I was you and thought myself so badly, I would go to my prayers like a Christian man.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“Heave him down by the fireside. Why should he have brandy, when many a Christian has to go without?”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)