missionary

American  

[mish-uh-ner-ee] / ˈmɪʃ əˌnɛr i /

noun

missionaries plural

1. a person sent by a church into an area to carry on evangelism or other activities, as educational or hospital work.

   There are opportunities for student missionaries living abroad to work with people in need of aid, participate in building projects, and share the Gospel.

2. a person strongly in favor of a program, set of principles, etc., who attempts to persuade or convert others.

3. a person who is sent on a mission.

4. missionary position.

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adjective

1. pertaining to or connected with religious missions.

2. engaged in such a mission or devoted to work connected with missions.

3. reflecting or prompted by the desire to persuade or convert others.

   the missionary efforts of political fanatics.

4. characteristic of a missionary.

   missionary zeal.

5. relating to or noting the missionary position.

   Then it was up to the bedroom for some good, old-fashioned missionary sex.

missionary British  

/ ˈmɪʃənərɪ /

noun

1. a member of a religious mission

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adjective

1. of or relating to missionaries

   missionary work

2. resulting from a desire to convert people to one's own beliefs

   missionary zeal

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonmissionary
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• missionaries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of missionary

First recorded in 1625–35; from New Latin missiōnārius; see mission, -ary

Explanation

A missionary is someone who travels to a foreign country to perform charitable work and, most commonly, to try to convert people to their faith. Missionary can be a noun — the person who goes on a mission — or an adjective — the type of work done on such a trip. If your great-grandmother was a missionary for the Methodist church in Japan in the 1920s, her purpose there was to convince people to abandon their religion for Methodism. Presumably she did this missionary work because she thought it would save their souls.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

missionary missionaries

St. Patrick offered evocative details of slaving and missionary work in the lands around the Irish Sea.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

The Traitors star was 23 years old and travelling the world onboard a Christian evangelical missionary ship when he came out to his fellow church members.

From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026

A Berlin hospital discharged the missionary earlier this month, saying he had recovered following 17 days of medical care.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

A graduate of the Congregationalist Yale College, Ogilvie was ordained in England and served as an Anglican missionary in Virginia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

If it weren’t for the great Scottish missionary David Livingstone, the Yao and Chewa might still be at odds today.

From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba

A new San Gabriel mission was being built, five years after Franciscan missionaries had founded the original mission in a flood zone, which flooded.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

There have been many devastating school fires in Kenya, where boarding schools are common as a colonial legacy of missionaries and the British.

From Barron's ● May 28, 2026

Stafford is one of three medical missionaries with Serge — a nonprofit based in Jenkintown, Penn. — who were exposed to the virus.

From MarketWatch ● May 18, 2026

For generations, the Hadzabe, also known as the Hadza, have kept their distance from modern agriculture, guns, missionaries, poachers and encroaching pastoralists.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026

In the early 1800s, European traders, missionaries, and whalers began to visit New Zealand, which had been occupied 600 years previously by Polynesian farmers and fishermen known as Maoris.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• clergy
• evangelist
• messenger
• pastor
• preacher
• teacher