as in missioner
a person who is sent especially to a foreign country to do religious work (such as converting people to the religion or ministering to the sick)
The missionaries sent to the island were ultimately unsuccessful in converting the native residents.
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as in apostolic
relating to missionaries or their work
The church organizes missionary trips to a variety of countries.
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of missionary
ABC News,
20 June 2026
Friends described Boelter as an evangelical Christian and occasional preacher and missionary who held politically conservative views and had been struggling to find work.
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Tim Sullivan,
Los Angeles Times,
11 June 2026
Michael Kaplan,
CBS News,
27 May 2026
Patrick LaRochelle, an American missionary physician, was 20 minutes away from getting on a plane out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, part of his journey with his wife and three kids back home to the United States for a summer visit.
—
Lauren Weber,
Washington Post,
26 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for missionary
Noun
Leo, who spent two decades working as a missionary in Peru, would be intimately familiar with the plight of Indigenous peoples in mining areas and the environmental impact of extraction industries on the land.
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ABC News,
20 June 2026
Friends described Boelter as an evangelical Christian and occasional preacher and missionary who held politically conservative views and had been struggling to find work.
—
Tim Sullivan,
Los Angeles Times,
11 June 2026
Adjective
An American doctor was infected with Ebola while working with a medical missionary organization in Democratic Republic of Congo.
—
Michael Kaplan,
CBS News,
27 May 2026
Patrick LaRochelle, an American missionary physician, was 20 minutes away from getting on a plane out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, part of his journey with his wife and three kids back home to the United States for a summer visit.
—
Lauren Weber,
Washington Post,
26 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for missionary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for missionary
Noun
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In 1976, the residence was redesigned as a retirement home for church missioners.
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Kelley Hudlow, missioner for clergy formation for the diocese, told NBC affiliate WVTM of Birmingham soon after the shooting that church leaders were trying to learn more.
Adjective
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On June 2, 1979, Pope John Paul II set out from Rome on an apostolic journey, as papal trips away from the Vatican are called.
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The leader of the Roman Catholic Church directed his remarks to university students at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, during an 11-day apostolic journey in Africa.
Noun
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All the gold is gone, and there’s barely enough to pay her soldiers, let alone throw a lavish coronation.
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Thirty-two Cuban soldiers working security for Maduro were killed in the raid.
Adjective
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Still, their ambitions are quite idealistic, even verging on evangelical.
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For example, today, Americans might believe that the demands of racial equity or of evangelical Christianity are so pressing that executive power would be justified in ignoring the legislature or the judiciary to serve them.
Noun
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Survivors have fought for a full public account of priests, with San Francisco the only diocese in the state that has not released such a list of clergy abuse offenders.
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Watching from the crowd was Father Taras Naumenko, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest, one of Tryzub's team chaplains and a passionate soccer goalie.
Noun
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The first Spanish expedition to California in 1542 was followed about 220 years later when Gaspar de Portolá and Franciscan monk Junipero Serra traversed the coastal lands.
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In the 18th century, an Italian monk, Father Antonio Piaggio, invented a device to gently unroll the carbonized papyrus.
Cite this Entry
“Missionary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/missionary. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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