parson
Americannoun
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a member of the clergy, especially a Protestant minister; pastor; rector.
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the holder or incumbent of a parochial benefice, especially an Anglican.
noun
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a parish priest in the Church of England, formerly applied only to those who held ecclesiastical benefices
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any clergyman
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a nonconformist minister
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of parson
1200–50; Middle English persone < Medieval Latin persōna parish priest, Latin: personage. See person
Explanation
Use the noun parson to describe a member of the clergy — a person with the authority to lead worship in a church or perform religious rites such as weddings and christenings. Historically, parson has been what Anglican church members call their minister or priest, but the term can also be used as a generic term for "clergy member." You might ask a parson to preside at your wedding, or to officiate at your grandmother's funeral, for example. Experts are uncertain about the exact origins of parson, although one theory says it's a shortened form of the Latin persona ecclesiae, "person of the church."
Vocabulary lists containing parson
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Our Town
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Twelfth Night
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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.
Roy is mirrored in turn by the later appearance of another parson, Preston Teagardin, played by Robert Pattinson with the same lip-smacking comic flamboyance he recently brought to “The King.”
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 15, 2020
Fleeing the law in Europe, the resourceful parson resurfaced as “Principal of the Anglican Divinity School in Ceylon.”
From Washington Post • Feb. 25, 2020
The sympathetic parson will reassure him, we think, but that’s not what happens.
From Salon • Jul. 6, 2018
“The point is not what I see, but what I feel,” he explains to the local parson, William Ransome.
From New York Times • Jun. 7, 2017
“He will look,” she said, “like a city parson at the racetrack. Someone who puts his money on horses named after the Patriarchs.”
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
