How to Use missionary in a Sentence

missionary

1 of 2 noun
  • My mom was a missionary in our church, and my dad is a deacon.
    Paul Schrodt, New York Times, 8 Nov. 2022
  • The missionary fled to the city of Ternopil, in western Ukraine, with his wife and son the day after Russia attacked.
    NBC News, 10 Mar. 2022
  • The very first missionary in the book of Acts was a castrated Black man, the Ethiopian eunuch.
    John Blake, CNN, 17 Sep. 2022
  • Each morning the missionary wonders whether the old man’s latest dream vision will spell the death of him.
    Justin E. H. Smith, WIRED, 7 Mar. 2023
  • My grandmother died the day the missionaries came for our souls.
    Elisa Gonzalez, The New Yorker, 12 June 2023
  • In 1721, Norwegian missionary Hans Egged built a small house close to the harbour.
    David Nikel, Forbes, 14 May 2022
  • That’s what a whole lot of missionary/athletes are dealing with.
    Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 15 Sep. 2022
  • As for me, his only daughter, he’s never said much about my years as a missionary.
    Longreads, 20 Apr. 2022
  • This was the work of decades and decades and decades of American missionaries, who couldn’t get this idea through in America, but could in Africa.
    Sophia Scorziello, Variety, 28 Sep. 2023
  • Francis is the first Jesuit pope and is known to have joined the Jesuit order hoping to become a missionary in Japan.
    Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 29 May 2023
  • 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
  • Wouldn’t serving as a hardworking missionary be the best way to repent?
    Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 2 Jan. 2022
  • Designers are its missionaries, and on Tuesday evening, Mr. Williams seemed exactly like the person to take us all to church on the way to the bank.
    Guy Trebay, New York Times, 28 June 2023
  • Luce, a missionary’s son and classics major at Yale, had studied his Plutarch.
    Lance Morrow, WSJ, 2 Dec. 2022
  • That stranger, Thomas (Ty Simpkins), is a fresh-faced, twentysomething missionary from a local church, the kind that preaches about end times.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 9 Dec. 2022
  • While in Jackson, Owens met a older white missionary who reintroduced Christ to his life.
    Benjamin Wells, Journal Sentinel, 27 Oct. 2022
  • How could these missionaries not know: there is no foreign song in a pretend foreign song.
    Jordan Castro, Harper's Magazine, 5 Jan. 2024
  • His father was a minister, and his mother was a missionary who sang with his sisters in a gospel quartet.
    Terence McArdle, Washington Post, 11 Aug. 2022
  • But the 31-year-old urban missionary was not prepared for the mass email that hit his inbox early Thursday morning.
    Jonathan M. Pitts, Baltimore Sun, 3 Oct. 2022
  • Spanish missionaries planted the first seeds of grape greatness in 1820.
    Branded Content Contributor, Orange County Register, 8 Jan. 2024
  • After his freshman year at Stanford, Romney spends two years in France as a missionary.
    CNN, 30 Jan. 2022
  • The last one happened in 1964, on the order of a local trader, as described in a book by German missionary Günter Kroemer.
    Fabiano Maisonnave, Teresa De Miguel, and André Penner, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Dec. 2023
  • Two pivotal encounters in his life — the mentoring boss and the older missionary — were with people who were not Black.
    Benjamin Wells, Journal Sentinel, 27 Oct. 2022
  • Rosmarie worked for five years as a missionary and teacher in Papua New Guinea with her sister Maria, her relatives said.
    Lisa Rathke, USA TODAY, 20 May 2022
  • Rosmarie worked for five years as a missionary and teacher in Papua, New Guinea with her sister Maria, her relatives said.
    Lisa Rathke, ajc, 19 May 2022
  • The 43-year-old former missionary applauded the decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade, which allows states to ban abortions.
    Ryan Gillespie, Orlando Sentinel, 26 July 2022
  • Suellen has strong ties to the New Orleans area having served here for many years prior to her work as a missionary, according to the archdiocese of New Orleans.
    Bynadine El-Bawab, ABC News, 6 Apr. 2022
  • In this account, St. Columba tells of a man being killed by the beast and when the beast returned to attack again, the Catholic missionary was able to use prayer to send the monster away, leaving those in the water unharmed.
    Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 29 Aug. 2023
  • When the missionary took his picture to a film developer, an employee sent a copy to a newspaper in Bangkok.
    Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune, 27 Aug. 2023
  • Survivors of those years of terror and forced migration found safe harbor in camps run by British missionaries in Iraq.
    Nina Burleigh, The New Republic, 17 Mar. 2023
Advertisement

missionary

2 of 2 adjective
  • The youngest hostage seized from the missionary group was an infant.
    New York Times, 21 Nov. 2021
  • Facing the plaza in the historic district is the San José missionary church.
    Lauren Beale, Forbes, 28 May 2022
  • Those were enormous shoes to fill, and Ritchie didn’t have the missionary zeal to compete.
    Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2021
  • Then there’s the role played by the missionary location.
    Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Jan. 2022
  • James and Donna Smith ended up in the Philippines for missionary work in the late 1980s.
    Rashika Jaipuriar, The Indianapolis Star, 25 Jan. 2022
  • My mom’s youngest sister does a lot of missionary work.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Apr. 2021
  • Groff started at the Postal Service after years of missionary work in Africa and Asia.
    John Fritze, USA TODAY, 29 June 2023
  • Half of the missionary deaths this year have been due to various health ailments.
    David Noyce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 15 July 2021
  • Many Web3 founders approach their work with a missionary-type zeal.
    Alex Tapscott, Fortune, 18 Oct. 2022
  • The developer had asked a missionary friend to translate the phrase.
    Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2022
  • The two first met when Perkins visited southern Africa on a missionary trip in 2018.
    Javonte Anderson, chicagotribune.com, 26 Nov. 2020
  • Someone who shoots enough 3s – Mo, again - for the Mavs to continue their missionary work with the five-out offense.
    Dallas News, 1 June 2022
  • Steve’s father, Mac Christensen of Mr. Mac missionary suit fame, called to tell me to be careful.
    The Salt Lake Tribune, 9 Mar. 2021
  • Of the additional schools on the coalition’s list, 105 were run by missionary groups and churches.
    Dana Hedgpeth and Emmanuel Martinez, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Aug. 2023
  • The terms of the contract played out in full force when the couple was carrying out missionary duties in El Salvador.
    Alexandra Del Rosario, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2023
  • The gang that took the missionary group was also blamed for kidnapping five priests and two nuns earlier this year.
    Jemima McEvoy, Forbes, 21 Oct. 2021
  • The country that gave the world the King James Bible and exported missionaries around the world is now, itself, a missionary field.
    Frank E. Lockwood, Arkansas Online, 24 Sep. 2022
  • Chuck and his missionary team, in those frantic moments, led children to the safety of the soccer pitch — a refuge of open space away from buildings.
    Erik Brady, USA TODAY, 7 May 2021
  • Lessons learned from missionary work Smith had another tool to fall back on when times were tougher at Cotopaxi.
    Michal Lev-Ram, Fortune, 22 Aug. 2023
  • Michael has loved his missionary service and loves the people of Alabama.
    Carol Robinson | Crobinson@al.com, al, 14 Dec. 2021
  • It’s like the old missionary analogy about trying to describe what salt tastes like.
    Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 21 Aug. 2022
  • Yet the Dodgers have shared little, leaving those on the other side of their walled compound to rely on gear smuggled in by missionary groups.
    Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 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
  • Older adults may begin serving in the senior missionary program at age 40 for up to 23 months.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 May 2021
  • The unveiling marked the 60th anniversary of missionary work beginning in earnest in the nation.
    David Noyce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 3 June 2021
  • Latter-day Saints are well known for their extensive missionary program around the world.
    David Campbell, The Conversation, 11 July 2023
  • The gang that police believe captured the missionary group is among the country’s most dangerous and one of the first to engage in mass kidnappings.
    BostonGlobe.com, 20 Oct. 2021
  • Boer was born and raised in Jos, Nigeria, to Christian Reformed missionary parents.
    David Jesse, Detroit Free Press, 28 Mar. 2022
  • Bonta was born in 1972 in the Phllippines, where his parents were doing Christian missionary work.
    Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 July 2021
  • Twelve remaining members of a U.S.-based missionary group who were kidnapped two months ago were freed, according to the group and to Haitian police.
    CBS News, 20 Dec. 2021

Some of 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.

Last Updated: