presbyter
Americannoun
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(in the early Christian church) an office bearer who exercised teaching, priestly, and administrative functions.
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(in hierarchical churches) a priest.
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an elder in a Presbyterian church.
noun
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an elder of a congregation in the early Christian Church
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(in some Churches having episcopal politics) an official who is subordinate to a bishop and has administrative, teaching, and sacerdotal functions
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(in some hierarchical Churches) another name for priest
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a teaching elder
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a ruling elder
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Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of presbyter
1590–1600; < Late Latin, noun use of the adj.: older < Greek presbýteros, equivalent to présby ( s ) old + -teros comparative suffix
Vocabulary lists containing presbyter
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.
“When Mona asked … for just about everybody in the Presbyterian, it was an instantaneous recognition of how much sense this made,” said Wendy Tajima, executive presbyter, or spiritual leader, of the church.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2025
Technically, what the presbyter vagans did by reading the marriage service was to pronounce a benediction.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Boston next week Father Williams is to be an attending presbyter at the consecration of his predecessor, Bishop-elect Burton.
From Time Magazine Archive
Stephen, an obscure Roman presbyter, was elected Pope on March 2-3, 752, but two days later, before he could be crowned, died of apoplexy.
From Time Magazine Archive
Marriage among the Ti-pings is solemnized with remarkable strictness, and the ceremony is performed by an officiating priest, or rather presbyter.
From Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution (Volume I) by Augustus F. Lindley
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.
