DISCIPLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does disciple mean? 

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

1. someone who believes and helps to spread the doctrine of another

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISCIPLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who believes and helps to spread the doctrine of another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

adherent; disciple

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

follower (a person who accepts the leadership of another)

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

diabolist; Satanist (an adherent of Satan or Satanism)

Druse; Druze (an adherent of an esoteric monotheistic religious sect living in the relative security of the mountains of Syria and Lebanon who believes that Al-hakim was an incarnation of God)

dualist (an adherent of dualism)

Hussite (an adherent of the religious reforms of John Huss)

Ismaili; Ismailian (an adherent of Ismailism; a member of the Ismaili branch of Shiism)

Lutheran (follower of Lutheranism)

Mahdist (an adherent of Mahdism)

Manichaean; Manichean; Manichee (an adherent of Manichaeism)

Monophysite (an adherent of Monophysitism)

Neoplatonist (an adherent of Neoplatonism)

Donatist (an adherent of Donatism)

Sikh (an adherent of Sikhism)

Socinian (an adherent of the teachings of Socinus; a Christian who rejects the divinity of Christ and the Trinity and original sin; influenced the development of Unitarian theology)

totalitarian (an adherent of totalitarian principles or totalitarian government)

Unitarian (adherent of Unitarianism)

Trinitarian (adherent of Trinitarianism)

Arminian (adherent of Arminianism)

votary (a devoted (almost religiously so) adherent of a cause or person or activity)

fundamentalist (an adherent of fundamentalist principles)

Zoroastrian (follower of Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism)

Mahayanist (an adherent of Mahayana Buddhism)

Hinayanist (an adherent of Hinayana Buddhism)

Lamaist ((Buddhism) an adherent of Lamaism)

Tantrist (an adherent of Tantrism)

Jainist (a believer in Jainism)

Shintoist (a believer in Shintoism)

Rasta; Rastafarian (follower of Rastafarianism)

Mithraist (adherent of Mithraism)

Zen Buddhist (an adherent of the doctrines of Zen Buddhism)

absolutist (one who advocates absolutism)

amoralist (someone who adheres to the doctrine that ordinary moral distinctions are invalid)

animist (one who accepts the doctrine of animism)

antinomian (a follower of the doctrine of antinomianism)

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

Aristotelean; Aristotelian; Peripatetic (a follower of Aristotle or an adherent of Aristotelianism)

Bahai (a teacher of or believer in Bahaism)

Tao; Taoist (an adherent of any branch of Taoism)

clericalist (one who advocates clericalism)

Instance hyponyms:

Baruch (a disciple of and secretary for the prophet Jeremiah)

Derivation:

discipleship (the position of disciple)

 Context examples 

"You are a disciple of Spencer!" Martin cried triumphantly.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A physician that has expertise in a specific medical disciple that can offer expertise or advice to other physicians and healthcare providers.

(Consulting Physician, NCI Thesaurus)

I little expected, in this enlightened and scientific age, to find a disciple of Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

As His disciple I adopt His pure, His merciful, His benignant doctrines.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I am happy, said M. Waldman, to have gained a disciple; and if your application equals your ability, I have no doubt of your success.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

But Brissenden was not a disciple of quietism, and he changed his attitude abruptly.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A brief address on those occasions would not be mistimed, wherein a judicious instructor would take the opportunity of referring to the sufferings of the primitive Christians; to the torments of martyrs; to the exhortations of our blessed Lord Himself, calling upon His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him; to His warnings that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; to His divine consolations, If ye suffer hunger or thirst for My sake, happy are ye.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I took their word for all that they averred, and I became their disciple.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Martin had heard Herbert Spencer quoted several times in the park, but one afternoon a disciple of Spencer's appeared, a seedy tramp with a dirty coat buttoned tightly at the throat to conceal the absence of a shirt.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)