CLERGYMAN Synonyms: 58 Similar and Opposite Words

clergyman

noun

Definition of clergyman

as in preacher

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of clergyman Marsh was the provost of Trinity College during Swift’s time, and had risen to be the Primate, or chief clergyman, in Ireland. — Ed Caesar, New Yorker, 2 May 2026 McColumn is a retired Brigadier General and clergyman from Warner Robins, Georgia. — Irene Wright, USA Today, 27 Apr. 2026 The clergyman warns that failure to do so would jeopardize the future of Iran as well as the stability of the entire Middle East, unleashing an even more volatile and repressive regime in the war’s wake. — Angie Leventis Lourgos, Chicago Tribune, 4 Apr. 2026 The clergyman warned, however, that failure to do so would jeopardize the future of Iran and the stability of the entire Middle East, unleashing an even more volatile and repressive Tehran government in the war’s wake. — Angie Leventis Lourgos, Los Angeles Times, 4 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for clergyman

Recent Examples of Synonyms for clergyman

Noun

John Lewis Dyer, an itinerant Methodist preacher, arrived with the earliest prospectors in 1862.

— John Meyer, Denver Post, 26 July 2026
Videos posted on social media show street preachers speaking with multiple police officers outside the event.

— Emily Holshouser, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 July 2026

Definition of preacher

Noun

Meanwhile, churchmen claimed the authority to restrain violence, encouraged just wars and threatened violent behaviors with spiritual sanctions.

— Joëlle Rollo-Koster, Fortune, 15 Apr. 2026
Not all birth rituals depended on the intercession of a saint or the authority of a churchman.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 18 Mar. 2026

Definition of churchman

Noun

In Natasha Pulley’s kaleidoscopic novel, a Vatican priest returns to the mining town of his youth to confront the cult following behind the eponymous Salt King.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 3 Aug. 2026
Jon asks, suggesting a name and/or laying the groundwork for his priest father to come and bless the child.

— David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 31 July 2026

Definition of priest

Noun

Among the residential buildings were the home of a deacon named Tisous and another that researchers think may have originally been a house church before the construction of the basilica.

— Anne Doran, ARTnews.com, 6 July 2026
Among them were the house of Tisous, identified as a church deacon and dating to the second half of the fourth century, which archaeologists believe served as a house church before the construction of the city’s basilica.

— ABC News, ABC News, 4 July 2026

Definition of deacon

Noun

However, a reverend in Zambia — Billiance Chondwe — says he's noticed a change.

— Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR, 18 June 2026
Spirtual foundation Astara, where Guidera reportedly served as a reverend, paid tribute to the late actor in an emotional social media post over the weekend.

— Edward Segarra, USA Today, 9 June 2026

Definition of reverend

Noun

Voice of America’s Persian Service began airing in its current form in 1979, shortly after the Iranian Revolution toppled the Shah and installed the Islamist clerics who rule the country to this day.

— Marc Fisher, New Yorker, 30 July 2026
Yet the mental horizons of Maucci and his associates were wider and more mobile than those of the big shots, small-time lawyers, and clerics who’d remained to vegetate in their old Lunigiana.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 22 July 2026

Definition of cleric

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clergy

clergyman

clergymen

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Style

“Clergyman.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/clergyman. Accessed 4 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of clergyman

noun

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