Word.ws English Dictionary

archegete

UK/ˈɑːkɪdʒiːt/US/ˈɑɹkədʒit/

archegete noun: the founder, progenitor, originator of a group, tradition, or institution.

Noun

archegete (plural archegetes)

  1. The founder, progenitor, originator of a group, tradition, or institution.
    • Lakulīśa (varr. lakuleśa, nakulīśa), which is used as an epithet of Śiva and as the name of that incarnation of Śiva who was the archegete of the Pāśupatas, means literally ‘lord (īśa) of the club (lakula).’1962, The Harvard Theological Review, page 296
    • That Antisthenes was the archegete of « the more manly section of the Stoic school » agrees with the suggestions evoked by the title Heracles.1986, Elenchos, page 339

Forms of archegete

pluralarchegetes
alternative formarchegetes

Origin of archegete

From Ancient Greek ἀρχηγέτης (arkhēgétēs, “founder, leader, progenitor”). Doublet of Archegetes (epithet of Apollo). Compare exegete (from Ancient Greek ἐξηγητής (exēgētḗs)).

Words formed from archegete

Questions about archegete

What does archegete mean?
Archegete means the founder, progenitor, originator of a group, tradition, or institution.
What part of speech is archegete?
Archegete is a noun.
How do you pronounce archegete?
Archegete is pronounced /ˈɑːkɪdʒiːt/ (UK).
What is the plural of archegete?
The plural of archegete is archegetes.

Words near archegete in the dictionary

  1. arched
  2. arched harp
  3. arched harps
  4. archeen
  5. archeens
  6. archegete
  7. archegetes
  8. archegetic
  9. archegone
  10. archegones
  11. archegonia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: archegete (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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