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• bishop
  bishop

  noun

  a person who supervises a number of local churches or a diocese, being in the Greek, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other churches a member of the highest order of the ministry.
• Bishop
  Bishop

  noun

  Elizabeth, 1911–79, U.S. poet.

bishop

¹ American  

[bish-uhp] / ˈbɪʃ əp /

noun

• bishops
  plural

1. a person who supervises a number of local churches or a diocese, being in the Greek, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other churches a member of the highest order of the ministry.

2. a spiritual supervisor, overseer, or the like.

3. Chess. one of two pieces of the same color that may be moved any unobstructed distance diagonally, one on white squares and the other on black.

4. a hot drink made of port wine, oranges, cloves, etc.

5. Also called bishop bird. any of several colorful African weaverbirds of the genus Euplectes, often kept as pets.

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verb (used with object)

bishoped, bishoping

1. to appoint to the office of bishop.

Bishop ² American  

[bish-uhp] / ˈbɪʃ əp /

noun

1. Elizabeth, 1911–79, U.S. poet.

2. Hazel Gladys, 1906–1998, U.S. chemist and businesswoman.

3. John Peale, 1892–1944, U.S. poet and essayist.

4. Morris (Gilbert), 1893–1973, U.S. humorist, poet, and biographer.

5. William Avery Billy, 1894–1956, Canadian aviator: helped to establish Canadian air force.

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bishop ¹ British  

/ ˈbɪʃəp /

noun

1. (in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Greek Orthodox Churches) a clergyman having spiritual and administrative powers over a diocese or province of the Church See also suffragan

2. (in some Protestant Churches) a spiritual overseer of a local church or a number of churches

3. a chesspiece, capable of moving diagonally over any number of unoccupied squares of the same colour

4. mulled wine, usually port, spiced with oranges, cloves, etc

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Bishop ² British  

/ ˈbɪʃəp /

noun

1. Elizabeth . 1911–79, US poet, who lived in Brazil. Her poetry reflects her travelling experience, esp in the tropics

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Bishop Scientific  

/ bĭsh′əp /

1. American molecular biologist who, working with Harold Varmus, discovered oncogenes. For this work, Bishop and Varmus shared the 1989 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

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bishop Cultural  

1. In some Christian churches, a person appointed to oversee a group of priests or ministers and their congregations. In the Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Church, bishops are considered the successors of the Twelve Apostles.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underbishop
  noun
• bishopless
  adjective
• bishoplike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• bishops
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of bishop

before 900; Middle English; Old English bisc ( e ) op < Vulgar Latin *ebiscopus, for Late Latin episcopus < Greek epískopos overseer, equivalent to epi- epi- + skopós watcher; see scope

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Explanation

A bishop is a religious authority figure in some Christian churches. In many churches, a bishop ordains, or appoints, ministers and priests. In Christian traditions ranging from Roman Catholic to Lutheran, bishops play an important role in church oversight. In many orthodox and Catholic churches, bishops are believed to be the successors to the original twelve apostles from the Bible's New Testament. The chess piece called the bishop comes from this religious figure, and the word itself comes from the Greek episkopos, "watcher or overseer."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bishop Bishop bishops bishoped bishoping

Leo XIV was born in the US city of Chicago but lived in Peru for more than two decades, where he was a missionary and bishop in Chiclayo.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

The Catholic Church declared Archbishop Fulton Sheen “blessed” in St. Louis on Thursday, placing him one step away from becoming the first bishop born in America to be canonized a saint.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

"I have made mistakes, but I have been blessed to be a priest and a bishop over the past 49 years."

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

Donal McKeown has spent the past quarter of a century as a bishop, but on Sunday he will say his final Mass as head of the diocese after 12 years.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

The bishop and I were still meeting every Sunday.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

Bishop combs his old memories of crime-fighting for clues on how to approach these new events.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

The performance of JSerra quarterback Hayes Cloutier last week against Bishop Amat perfectly explains the trend.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

Amazon has blocked Muse from shopping on its platform, as GeekWire’s Todd Bishop pointed out on Sunday, saying Meta never got permission.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

The outgoing Catholic Bishop of Derry believes one of the biggest challenges of retirement will be getting used to his phone "not ringing so often".

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

By July sixteenth, which was my birthday, I had fallen wildly in love with Julia Bishop.

From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith

Catholic and Orthodox bishops, clergy and laity gathered in July at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington for a conference on unity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

French bishops report that 13,234 adults were baptized this year in the country.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

When appointing bishops and archbishops, the Church presents a candidate to the prime minister who then advises the monarch on who to install in the role.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

The Vatican declared a formal schism with the Society of St. Pius X, excommunicating its bishops and priests for consecrating four bishops without papal consent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

They twisted gold wire and inlaid interlacements of the wildest complexity on the crosiers of the bishops.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

In that county burnt milk is still said to be "bishoped."

From In a Green Shade A Country Commentary by Maurice Henry Hewlett

All over the country the farmers and horse-dealers knew that neither Jasper nor Panuel ever bishoped a gry, or indulged in any other horse-dealing tricks.

From Aylwin by Theodore Watts-Dunton

He would be bishoped here, and bishoped there, before the eyes of all palatial men and women, till life would be a burden to him.

From The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope

His method was by no means soft; on the contrary, it was hard, rapid, severe,—somewhat on the model of Tryggveson's, though with more of bishoping and preaching superadded.

From Early Kings of Norway by Thomas Carlyle

Have not our Conformists in Scotland hitherto commonly omitted bishoping of children, and the ministration of the sacraments in private places?

From The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) by George Gillespie

The archdeacon knew his subject, and really understood the business of bishoping, which the others did not; and this was his strong ground.

From Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

The archdeacon knew his subject, and really understood the business of bishoping, which the others did not.

From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 08 — Fiction by Arthur Mee

The archdeacon knew his subject and really understood the business of bishoping, which the others did not, and this was his strong ground.

From Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

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