messenger

American  

[mes-uhn-jer] / ˈmɛs ən dʒər /

noun

messengers plural

1. a person who carries a message or goes on an errand for another, especially as a matter of duty or business.

   Synonyms:

   courier, bearer

2. a person employed to convey official dispatches or to go on other official or special errands.

   a bank messenger.

3. Nautical.

   1. a rope or chain made into an endless belt to pull on an anchor cable or to drive machinery from some power source, as a capstan or winch.

   2. a light line by which a heavier line, as a hawser, can be pulled across a gap between a ship and a pier, a buoy, another ship, etc.

4. Oceanography. a brass weight sent down a line to actuate a Nansen bottle or other oceanographic instrument.

5. Archaic. a herald, forerunner, or harbinger.

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verb (used with object)

1. to send by messenger.

messenger British  

/ ˈmɛsɪndʒə /

noun

1. a person who takes messages from one person or group to another or others

2. a person who runs errands or is employed to run errands

3. a carrier of official dispatches; courier

4. nautical

   1. a light line used to haul in a heavy rope

   2. an endless belt of chain, rope, or cable, used on a powered winch to take off power

5. archaic a herald

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• messengers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of messenger

1175–1225; Middle English messager, messangere < Anglo-French; Old French messagier. See message, -er ²

Explanation

Use the noun messenger to refer to someone who brings you a message. Your mail carrier delivering a postcard and your gossipy friend calling to give you the latest news can each be described as a messenger. Delivering messages for others is certainly a time-honored profession, since even the gods of Antiquity needed someone to do it — the Greeks had Hermes and the Romans had Mercury as their messenger gods. A messenger carries a message, and that's where the word itself comes from: the Latin root of message is missus, which means "a sending away, sending, dispatching" and is the past participle of mittere, "send."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

messenger messengers

The nanoparticles carried messenger RNA that directs cells to produce PTEN, a protein that helps prevent uncontrolled tumor growth.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026

India blocked access to Telegram messenger on Tuesday ahead of a retest of a nationwide medical college entrance examination, after a scandal last month over a question paper leak.

From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026

“Why would he get any votes when he didn’t have a message, didn’t have a messenger and didn’t have a vehicle for that message?”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026

As part of the push for a "sovereign internet", the government is promoting a state-backed Russian messenger called MAX.

From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026

He pretended, therefore, that he had gone mad, and when a messenger from the Greek Army arrived, the King was plowing a field and sowing it with salt instead of seed.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

He's despatched messengers on horseback to free Harold who has been taken captive in France.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

These chemical messengers play important roles in mood, attention, motivation, memory, and the body's response to stress.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 15, 2026

The column contends that the solution requires building civic infrastructure through trusted messengers who explain project significance, community organizations that provide plain-language guidance, and alternative participation methods beyond weekday government meetings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026

Technically speaking, peptides are short chains of amino acids that act as messengers in the body.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 22, 2026

Sometimes it was more reliable—though much slower—to use letters or human messengers instead.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

Related Words

• courier
• emissary
• go-between
• mediator
• prophet