minister

minister

noun

Definition of MINISTER

1

a person sent on a mission to represent another <the British ministers at the international peace conference>

Synonyms agent, delegate, emissary, envoy, legate, minister, representative

Related Words ambassadress; attaché, chargé d'affaires, consul, deputy, diplomat, foreign minister, nuncio, procurator, proxy; apostle, evangelist, missionary; deputation, detachment, legation; courier, messenger; mouthpiece, spokesperson

2

a person specially trained and authorized to conduct religious services in a Christian church <our minister gives an interesting sermon every week>

Synonyms cleric, clerical, clerk, deacon, divine, dominie, ecclesiastic, minister, preacher, priest, reverend

Related Words churchman, clergyman, father, Holy Joe [slang], padre; clergywoman, deaconess, priestess; abbot, archbishop, archpriest, bishop, dean, diocesan, monsignor, pope, prelate, presbyter; abbé, curate, curé, parson, pastor, rector, shepherd, vicar; chaplain, confessor, sky pilot; evangelist, missionary, missioner, missionizer, revivalist; friar, mendicant, monastic, monk, oblate, religious; high priest, high priestess

Near Antonyms lay reader, lector

Antonyms layman, layperson, secular

3

a person who acts or does business for another <she's merely a minister of the corporation>

Synonyms assignee, attorney, commissary, delegate, deputy, envoy, factor, minister, procurator, proxy, rep, representative

Related Words ambassador, diplomat, diplomatist, emissary, foreign minister, legate, plenipotentiary; alternate, backup, pinch hitter, relief, replacement, stand-in, sub, substitute, surrogate, understudy; informer, operative, spy; broker, distributor, manager; arbiter, arbitrator, comprador (or compradore), conciliator, go-between, intercessor, intermediary, interposer, liaison, mediator, middleman, peacemaker; mouthpiece, point man, point person, prophet, speaker, spokesman, spokesperson