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Definition of missionary noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

missionary

noun
 
/ˈmɪʃənri/
 
/ˈmɪʃəneri/
(plural missionaries)
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  1. a person who is sent to a foreign country to teach people about religion, especially Christianity
    • Baptist missionaries
    • missionary work
    • (figurative) She spoke about her new project with missionary zeal (= with great enthusiasm).
    • My father was a missionary from a little town in South Africa.
    • clergy sent as missionaries to Latin America
    Topics Religion and festivalsc1, Jobsc1
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • foreign
    • pioneer
    • evangelical
    verb + missionary
    • work as
    • send (somebody as)
    missionary + noun
    • work
    • zeal
    preposition
    • as a missionary
    See full entry
    Word Originmid 17th cent.: from modern Latin missionarius, from Latin missio, from mittere ‘send’.
See missionary in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee missionary in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English

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influence
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