cleric

a person specially trained and authorized to conduct religious services in a Christian church clerics were sharply divided on the issue of whether the war was morally justified Synonyms clergyperson, clerical, clerk, deacon, divine, dominie, ecclesiastic, minister, preacher, priest, reverendRelated 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 priestessNear Antonyms lay reader, lectorAntonyms layman, layperson, secular