preacher

noun

preach·​er ˈprē-chər 

plural preachers

: one who preaches: such as

a

: a person who delivers a sermon publicly

a street preacher

b

: one whose function is to preach sermons : pastor, minister

She waited patiently on a Sunday morning until the crowd had said good-by to the preacher.

—Don Jeffries

"What kind of preacher are you? What denomination?" "I was ordained in a Baptist church, but I'm sort of nondenominational now."

—John Grisham

c

: one who inculcates or exhorts something earnestly or officiously

… he was an ardent preacher of gentlemanly ethics …

—Paul Schullery

… he was perceived by the larger world, not inaccurately, as a preacher of the hatred.

—Nicholas Lemann

Synonyms

• clergyperson
• cleric
• clerical
• clerk
• deacon
• divine
• dominie
• ecclesiastic
• minister
• priest
• reverend

Examples of preacher in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

His counterpart was George Angell, the president of the Massachusetts SPCA and the son of a Baptist preacher, who founded a newsletter called Our Dumb Animals and packed its pages with treacly poetry and stories written from the perspective of horses. —Ben Goldfarb, The Atlantic, 18 Apr. 2024

Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 have killed more than 100 preachers, including religious scholars, imams, muezzins (those who perform the call to prayer), and hafiz (Muslims who have memorized the Quran), according to the ministry. —Sana Noor Haq, CNN, 13 Mar. 2024

They were named for Izz al-Din al-Qassam, a preacher in Haifa who urged Muslims that only their guns would save them from the British turning their land into a Jewish homeland. who played a big role in the uprising. —Emily Bazelon, New York Times, 1 Feb. 2024

The Wallen siblings were raised by Tommy, a preacher, and Lesli, an elementary school teacher, in the rural town of Sneedville, Tenn. —Emily Krauser, Peoplemag, 8 Apr. 2024

The book chronicles Liefeld’s trajectory from the son of a preacher in Orange County, California, to becoming a rising star at Marvel in the early 1990s, when his work on titles such as X-Force set sales records. —Aaron Couch, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Apr. 2024

Indeed, every street-corner preacher in Silicon Valley seems to want to sermonize on it. —Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 27 Mar. 2024

Tall, thin, and bald, he has been compared to both a monk and a preacher. —Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024

These preachers and healers tell parents that therapeutic intervention is not needed. —Scovian Lillian, NPR, 26 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

preacher

noun

preach·​er

ˈprē-chər

: one that preaches

especially : minister entry 1 sense 1b