Word.ws English Dictionary

deacons

deacons is the plural of deacon.

Meaning of deacon

Noun

deacon (plural deacons)

  1. (early Christianity) A designated minister of charity in the early Church (see Acts 6:1-6).
  2. (broadly, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Church of the East) A clergyman ranked directly below a priest, with duties of helping the priests and carrying out parish work.
  3. (broadly, Anglicanism) An ordained clergyperson usually serving a year prior to being ordained presbyter, though in some cases they remain a permanent deacon.
  4. (broadly, Evangelicalism) A lay leader of a congregation who assists the pastor.
  5. (broadly, Methodism) A separate office from that of minister, neither leading to the other; instead there is a permanent deaconate.
  6. (broadly) A junior lodge officer.

See all 16 meanings of deacon

Phrases with deacons

Questions about deacons

What is deacons the plural of?
Deacons is the plural of deacon.

Words near deacons in the dictionary

  1. deaconhood
  2. deaconing
  3. deaconly
  4. deaconries
  5. deaconry
  6. deacons
  7. deaconship
  8. deaconships
  9. deacquisition
  10. deacquisitioned
  11. deacquisitioning

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deacons (page history and authors); deacon (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-deacons.wav.

Cite this entry: “deacons.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deacons. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.