high priest

noun

1
: a chief priest especially of the ancient Jewish Levitical priesthood traditionally traced from Aaron
2
: a priest of the Melchizedek priesthood in the Mormon Church
3
: the head of a movement or chief exponent of a doctrine or an art
high priesthood noun

Examples of high priest in a Sentence

the high priest of tax relief for the state's property owners as the high priest of nouvelle cuisine, he was enormously influential in the food world
Recent Examples on the Web Every year, human resource professionals — the high priests and priestesses of the woke religion — recruit and hire a new crop of college graduates having been carefully groomed to embrace woke theology. Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 6 Jan. 2024 Arms control’s high priests and priestesses, and key senators such as Joe Biden and John Kerry, were apoplectic. John R. Bolton, National Review, 25 Jan. 2024 The high priest’s authority was even greater than that of the Zapotec king. Franz Lidz Meghan Dhaliwal, New York Times, 23 Dec. 2023 Then Stephen Milling, as the high priest Sarastro, saunters along a passerelle with a microphone in his fist, part smooth-sermonizing televangelist, part corporate boss. Vulture, 23 May 2023 Hyde Park became for a few hours not the playground of princes and kings but a true church of rock 'n' roll, its grinning high priests sporting nicknames like Little Steven, The Professor (Roy Bittan on piano), Mighty Max (Weinberg on drums) and of course The Boss himself. USA TODAY, 9 July 2023 For both the executive high priests and the ordinary worshippers of Marvelism, the gnostic gospel of Stanley Martin Lieber amounts to heresy. Abraham Josephine Riesman, Vulture, 22 June 2023 As an act of consecration and setting aside, the anointing of kings was in many ways comparable to the ordination of high priests. Town & Country, 7 May 2023 God tells Moses to speak to Aaron, detailing the laws of the high priest on Yom Kippur (16:2–28). Rabbi Avi Weiss, Sun Sentinel, 24 Apr. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'high priest.' 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

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of high priest was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near high priest

Cite this Entry

“High priest.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/high%20priest. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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