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itinerancy

American  
[ahy-tin-er-uhn-see, ih-tin-] / aɪˈtɪn ər ən si, ɪˈtɪn- /
Also itineracy

noun

  1. the act of traveling from place to place.

  2. a going around from place to place in the discharge of duty or the conducting of business.

  3. a body of itinerants, as ministers, judges, or sales representatives.

  4. the state of being itinerant.

  5. the system of rotation governing the ministry of the Methodist Church.


itinerancy British  
/ ɪˈtɪnərənsɪ, aɪ- /

noun

  1. the act of itinerating

  2. Methodist Church the system of appointing a minister to a circuit of churches or chapels

  3. itinerants collectively

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of itinerancy

First recorded in 1780–90; itiner(ant) + -ancy

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

She conjures José María’s itinerancy, following him from mining work to cotton picking.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 29, 2026

“In other words, defendant has a history of itinerancy, firearms possession, and lack of candor with law enforcement, all exacerbating his risk of flight,” Lasher wrote.

From Seattle Times Apr. 11, 2024

But the greatest drawback of the series is a holdover from the comics themselves, with their epic scale unable to be fully conveyed by the narrative itinerancy and the oneiric, plot-dependent logic governing these universes.

From Washington Post Aug. 5, 2022

A particularly insightful grouping of paintings clarifies how the psychic state of Mitchell’s itinerancy manifested on canvas.

From New York Times Sep. 2, 2021

Typographical itinerancy, this printing by the roadside, as we may almost call it, must needs be illustrated in great collections, like any other habit of the early printers.

From Fine Books by Alfred W. (Alfred William) Pollard

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