missionary

1 of 2

noun

mis·​sion·​ary ˈmi-shə-ˌner-ē How to pronounce missionary (audio)
plural missionaries
: a person undertaking a mission and especially a religious mission
Several years ago, when I was working as a reporter based in Haiti, I came upon a group of older Christian missionaries in the mountains above Port-au-Prince … They were there to build a school alongside a Methodist church.Jacob Kushner
Hawaiian Pidgin English developed during the 1800s and early 1900s, when immigrant laborers from China, Portugal, and the Philippines arrived to work in the plantations; American missionaries also came around that time.Alia Wong

missionary

2 of 2

adjective

1
: relating to, engaged in, or devoted to missions
2
: characteristic of a missionary

Did you know?

Beginning around 1540, an order of Catholic priests known as the Jesuits began to send its members to many parts of the world to convert peoples who believed in other gods to Christianity. Wherever they went, the Catholic missionaries built central buildings for their religious work, and the buildings themselves became known as missions; many 17th-century missions in the American West and Southwest are now preserved as museums. Their foes, the Protestants, soon began sending out their own missionaries, and today Protestant missionaries are probably far more numerous.

Examples of missionary in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
How could these missionaries not know: there is no foreign song in a pretend foreign song. Jordan Castro, Harper's Magazine, 5 Jan. 2024 Spanish authorities allowed Christian missionaries to seize land while forcing natives to make onerous rent payments. Peter S. Goodman Jes Aznar, New York Times, 30 Dec. 2023 Part of his goal for the armed abductions of the Christian missionaries was to secure his own release from a Haitian prison, according to court documents. Chris Eberhart, Fox News, 5 Mar. 2024 Impressed by Adams’ diplomatic overtures, Ieyasu ignored the advice of Portuguese Jesuit missionaries who urged him to execute the Protestant interloper. Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Feb. 2024 This outrageous musical comedy follows the adventures of a mismatched pair of missionaries sent halfway around the world to spread the Good Word. Luann Gibbs, The Enquirer, 18 Feb. 2024 The number of young Mormon missionaries heading to Samoa will probably tick upward. Brian T. Allen, National Review, 10 Feb. 2024 In the second half of the 1800s, a group of Catholic missionaries gathered a group of school-age boys in French Polynesia and taught them how to grow, harvest and process pearl shells. Moira Ritter, Miami Herald, 1 Feb. 2024 Hine was a missionary in the 1930s, living and traveling in the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe, which now includes Ukraine. Jessica Nicholson, Billboard, 26 Jan. 2024
Adjective
The Wilsons, a Black, missionary couple, taught at classical schools in America before moving to Kenya, in 2022. Emma Green, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024 Throughout the world, Catholicism is largely hierarchical, with priests and religious sisters doing most evangelical and missionary work. Tim Busch, National Review, 23 Dec. 2023 In one particularly striking scene, a white missionary woman invites him to discuss his salvation at her church group’s residence—a bungalow lined with banana trees that turns out to be his own former home. Julian Lucas, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2023 The first – only a missionary motivation of this kind can justify the sacrifices, the hierarchical deprivations, the regional desolation, that Putin asks of his population. Melik Kaylan, Forbes, 10 Feb. 2024 Chau had trained in Kansas City with a missionary group called All Nations, their actors role-playing tribal encounters—rushing out with mock weapons as a coach monitored Chau’s reactions. Jordan Castro, Harper's Magazine, 5 Jan. 2024 But Kissinger never conceded as much, even after eight years of working for a missionary state and spending most of his adult life in a missionary country, and that was his folly. Christian Schneider, National Review, 21 Dec. 2023 Ultimately, the teacher settled on a crew of a teenage girl, a missionary, two cats, and his own dog, Cyclops. Liz Clayton Fuller, Popular Science, 27 Sep. 2023 Today, that haystack vigil is marked by a Berkshires-quarried marble obelisk topped by an orb, a symbol of the global missionary vision of the young Puritan men who huddled there — for whom neither New England nor the New World were sufficient. Andrew Doran, National Review, 12 Nov. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'missionary.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1623, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1644, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of missionary was in 1623

Dictionary Entries Near missionary

Cite this Entry

“Missionary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/missionary. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

missionary

1 of 2 adjective
mis·​sion·​ary ˈmish-ə-ˌner-ē How to pronounce missionary (audio)
1
: relating to, engaged in, or devoted to missions
2
: characteristic of a missionary : zealous

missionary

2 of 2 noun
plural missionaries
: one sent to spread a religious faith among unbelievers or to engage in charitable work with religious support
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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