MISSIONARY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does missionary mean? 

• MISSIONARY (noun)
  The noun MISSIONARY has 2 senses:

1. someone who attempts to convert others to a particular doctrine or program

2. someone sent on a mission--especially a religious or charitable mission to a foreign country

  Familiarity information: MISSIONARY used as a noun is rare.

• MISSIONARY (adjective)
  The adjective MISSIONARY has 1 sense:

1. relating to or connected to a religious mission

  Familiarity information: MISSIONARY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MISSIONARY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who attempts to convert others to a particular doctrine or program

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

instructor; teacher (a person whose occupation is teaching)

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

Cyril; Saint Cyril; St. Cyril (Greek missionary; the invention of the Cyrillic alphabet is attributed to him (826-869))

Instance hyponyms:

Apostle of Germany; Boniface; Saint Boniface; St. Boniface; Winfred; Wynfrith ((Roman Catholic Church) Anglo-Saxon missionary who was sent to Frisia and Germany to spread the Christian faith; was martyred in Frisia (680-754))

David Livingstone; Livingstone (Scottish missionary and explorer who discovered the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls (1813-1873))

Marcus Whitman; Whitman (United States frontier missionary who established a post in Oregon where Christianity and schooling and medicine were available to Native Americans (1802-1847))

Saint Francis Xavier; Xavier (Spanish missionary and Jesuit who established missionaries in Japan and Ceylon and the East Indies (1506-1552). Etymologically speaking, the name Xavier may be derived from Arabic (Xavier, meaning Bright) or Basque (Etcheberria or Etxabier, meaning The New House))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone sent on a mission--especially a religious or charitable mission to a foreign country

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

missionary; missioner

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

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

Instance hyponyms:

Buck; Pearl Buck; Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (United States author whose novels drew on her experiences as a missionary in China (1892-1973))

Jacques Marquette; Marquette; Pere Jacques Marquette (French missionary who accompanied Louis Joliet in exploring the upper Mississippi River valley (1637-1675))

Apostle of the Gentiles; Apostle Paul; Paul; Paul the Apostle; Saint Paul; Saul; Saul of Tarsus; St. Paul ((New Testament) a Christian missionary to the Gentiles; author of several Epistles in the New Testament; even though Paul was not present at the Last Supper he is considered an Apostle)

Albert Schweitzer; Schweitzer (French philosopher and physician and organist who spent most of his life as a medical missionary in Gabon (1875-1965))

Junipero Serra; Miguel Jose Serra; Serra (Spanish missionary who founded Franciscan missions in California (1713-1784))

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu; Mother Teresa; Mother Theresa; Teresa; Theresa (Indian nun and missionary in the Roman Catholic Church (born of Albanian parents in what is now Macedonia); dedicated to helping the poor in India (1910-1997))

• MISSIONARY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or connected to a religious mission

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

missional; missionary

Pertainym:

mission (an organization of missionaries in a foreign land sent to carry on religious work)

 Context examples 

"Could you decide now?" asked the missionary.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“It sounds less as if you wanted a missionary. How d'ye do, Barkis? I hope you're well?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I went to the medicine-man, what you call missionary, and had large talk about the bad water and the payment that should be mine.

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

While there she had made the acquaintance of a Dr. Shlessinger and his wife, a missionary from South America.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"And unfortunately, all the missionaries are off among the heathen, so there are none left at home to break those old images, Mr. Vanderwater and Mr. Praps."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This foraging partnership was recorded in print as early as 1588, when a Portuguese missionary in what is now Mozambique observed a small brown bird slipping into his church to nibble his wax candles.

(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Mrs. March is as brisk and cheery, though rather grayer, than when we saw her last, and just now so absorbed in Meg's affairs that the hospitals and homes still full of wounded 'boys' and soldiers' widows, decidedly miss the motherly missionary's visits.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was a sort of laugh, as she answered, 'A pretty good lecture, upon my word. Was it part of your last sermon? At this rate you will soon reform everybody at Mansfield and Thornton Lacey; and when I hear of you next, it may be as a celebrated preacher in some great society of Methodists, or as a missionary into foreign parts.'

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I repeat I freely consent to go with you as your fellow-missionary, but not as your wife; I cannot marry you and become part of you.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And the missionary made talk about other things. He talk about where Moklan has gone, now he is dead.

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