Word.ws English Dictionary

deaconess

/ˌdiːkəˈnɛs/

deaconess noun: a non-clerical role for women in some churches.

Noun

deaconess (plural deaconesses)

  1. A non-clerical role for women in some churches.
  2. (rare) A female deacon.
  3. A female servant in the early Christian church.
  4. The nun in charge of the altar in a convent.
  5. One of an order of women in some Protestant churches who nurse the sick and tend the poor.

Forms of deaconess

pluraldeaconesses

Origin of deaconess

Inherited from Middle English dekenesse; equivalent to deacon + -ess.

Words formed from deaconess

Questions about deaconess

What does deaconess mean?
Deaconess means a non-clerical role for women in some churches.
What part of speech is deaconess?
Deaconess is a noun.
How do you pronounce deaconess?
Deaconess is pronounced /ˌdiːkəˈnɛs/ (UK).
What is the plural of deaconess?
The plural of deaconess is deaconesses.

Words near deaconess in the dictionary

  1. Deacon's process
  2. deaconal
  3. deaconate
  4. deaconates
  5. deaconed
  6. deaconess
  7. deaconess-house
  8. deaconess-houses
  9. deaconesses
  10. deaconhood
  11. deaconing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deaconess (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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