REVEREND

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Reverend mean? 

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

1. a member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church

2. a title of respect for a clergyman

  Familiarity information: REVEREND used as a noun is rare.

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

1. worthy of adoration or reverence

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• REVEREND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

clergyman; man of the cloth; reverend

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

spiritual leader (a leader in religious or sacred affairs)

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

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)

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)

doorkeeper; ostiarius; ostiary (the lowest of the minor Holy Orders in the unreformed Western Church but now suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church)

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))

archdeacon ((Anglican Church) an ecclesiastical dignitary usually ranking just below a bishop)

chaplain (a clergyman ministering to some institution)

churchman; cleric; divine; ecclesiastic (a clergyman or other person in religious orders)

curate; minister; minister of religion; parson; pastor; rector (a person authorized to conduct religious worship)

deacon (a cleric ranking just below a priest in Christian churches; one of the Holy Orders)

domine; dominee; dominie; dominus (a clergyman; especially a settled minister or parson)

lector; reader (someone who reads the lessons in a church service; someone ordained in a minor order of the Roman Catholic Church)

Instance hyponyms:

Beecher; Henry Ward Beecher (United States clergyman who was a leader for the abolition of slavery (1813-1887))

Donne; John Donne (English clergyman and metaphysical poet celebrated as a preacher (1572-1631))

John Keble; Keble (English clergyman who (with John Henry Newman and Edward Pusey) founded the Oxford movement (1792-1866))

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))

John Wesley; Wesley (English clergyman and founder of Methodism (1703-1791))

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))

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

clergy (in Christianity, clergymen collectively (as distinguished from the laity))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A title of respect for a clergyman

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

form of address; title; title of respect (an identifying appellation signifying status or function: e.g. 'Mr.' or 'General')

• REVEREND (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Worthy of adoration or reverence

Synonyms:

reverend; sublime

Similar:

sacred (concerned with religion or religious purposes)

 Context examples 

Read upon the same day at the Abbey of Beaulieu in the presence of the most reverend Abbot Berghersh and of the assembled order.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Lord bless me, yes!” said Traddles—“by the Reverend Horace—to Sophy—down in Devonshire.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Grave and reverend seniors seemed to have caught the prevailing spirit as badly as the students, and I saw white-bearded men rising and shaking their fists at the obdurate Professor.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It seems they had come in the carriage with their reverend relative, and had been conducting a rummaging scrutiny of the room upstairs, while he transacted business with the housekeeper, questioned the laundress, and lectured the superintendent.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My dear mother, the best that ever a man had, was the second daughter of the Reverend John Tregellis, Vicar of Milton, which is a small parish upon the borders of the marshes of Langstone.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yet perhaps the virtue of those reverend sages was too strict for the corrupt and libertine manners of a court: and we often find by experience, that young men are too opinionated and volatile to be guided by the sober dictates of their seniors.

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

“But I am afraid I am wandering from the subject. Did I mention the Reverend Horace?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Well, the Reverend Horace did,” said Traddles.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“The mama,” said Traddles—“Reverend Horace Crewler—when I mentioned it with every possible precaution to Mrs. Crewler, the effect upon her was such that she gave a scream and became insensible.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I am glad you think so, Copperfield, rejoined Traddles, because, without any imputation on the Reverend Horace, I do think parents, and brothers, and so forth, are sometimes rather selfish in such cases.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)