Word.ws English Dictionary

mission

Syllables: mis·sion/ˈmɪʃ.ən/

mission noun: a set of tasks that fulfills a purpose or duty; an assignment set by an employer, or by oneself.

mission: a set of tasks that fulfills a purpose or duty; an assignment set by an employer, or by oneself
Image: Farwestern Photo by Gregg M. Erickson, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

mission (countable and uncountable, plural missions)

  1. (countable) A set of tasks that fulfills a purpose or duty; an assignment set by an employer, or by oneself.
  2. A important goal or purpose; an objective.
    • [She] made it her mission in life to make sure that no one around them would ever know the real truth. But this daughter of hers, she was a loose cannon, she was not someone to be trusted.[…]2008 October 16, Martina Cole, The Business: A compelling suspense thriller of danger and destruction, Headline, →ISBN
    • The first page [of her CV] was a statement of her mission and role in life, which was to add the highest value in everything she undertook. On page two, we listed her primary governing values and operating principles. The third page listed her objectives[…]2013 September 30, Ratanjit, How Oneness Changes Everything: Empowering Business Through 9 Universal Laws, BalboaPress, →ISBN, page 213
  3. (countable) A missionary expedition.
  4. (in plural, "the missions") Third World charities, particularly those which preach as well as provide aid.
  5. (countable) An infrequent gathering of religious believers in a parish, usually part of a larger regional event with a central theme.
  6. A number of people appointed to perform any service; a delegation; an embassy.
    • [I]n either of theſe Ships, there ſhould be a Miſsion of three of the Fellowes, or Brethren of Salomons Houſe; [...]1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “New Atlantis. A Worke Vnfinished.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn]...
  7. (obsolete) Dismissal; discharge from service
  8. A settlement or building serving as a base for missionary work.
    • Many cities across the Americas grew from Spanish missions.
  9. (Australia, becoming obsolete) An settlement predominantly inhabited by Indigenous Australians living in housing commission.
  10. (slang) A drug run.
  11. (colloquial) An ordeal; an difficult, trying task.
    • I was thinking like meat, [you could use this wooden device to] tenderize a steak ... but not into a wooden box, 'cause it's gonna be a mission to clean.2025 July 30, Ben Ebbrell, Sorted Food, Can Antique Gadgets Handle Modern Cooking?, 18:23

Verb

mission (third-person singular simple present missions, present participle missioning, simple past and past participle missioned)

  1. (transitive) To send on a mission.
  2. (intransitive) To do missionary work, proselytize.
  3. (transitive) To undertake an arduous or long task that requires substantial effort.

Proper noun capitalized: Mission

Mission

  1. A district municipality of British Columbia, Canada.
  2. A neighborhood of San Francisco.

mission meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

mission in Hindi

mission, undertaking
अभियान abhiyān

mission in Tamil

பணிதம், அறப்பணி, மறைபணி, அறச்சார்பான இயக்கம், தூதுக்குழு, சமயக்குழு

mission in Urdu

set of tasks that fulfills a purpose
کار kār

mission in Bengali

mission
রিসালত riśalot
More languagesFewer languages
mission in Malayalam
ദൗത്യം dautyaṁ
mission in Kannada
ಬಾಳಿನ ಗುರಿ, ಕಳಿಪುಗೆ
mission in Assamese
অভিযান obhizan
mission in Tagalog
misyon
mission in Arabic
مُهِمَّة muhimma, مَأْمُورِيَّة maʔmūriyya
mission in Malay
misi, hala tuju
mission in Indonesian
tugas, misi
mission in Thai
ภารกิจ paa-rá-gìt
mission in Vietnamese
nhiệm vụ, sứ mệnh, hội thiện nguyện, khu truyền giáo

Examples of mission in a sentence

  • Our mission is to travel the galaxy and find new worlds.
  • The sergeant sent out an order to arm the team for the next mission.
  • The company president codified the goal as a one-line mission statement.

All 40 example sentences with mission

Forms of mission

Noun
pluralmissions
Verb
third-person singular presentmissions
present participlemissioning
past participlemissioned
pastmissioned

Plural of mission: missions

Origin of mission

Learned borrowing from Latin missiō, missiōnem (“a sending, sending away, dispatching, discharging, release, remission, cessation”).

Words formed from mission

Phrases with mission

7 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with mission

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mission

What does mission mean?
Mission means a set of tasks that fulfills a purpose or duty; an assignment set by an employer, or by oneself.
What is mission in Hindi?
Mission in Hindi is अभियान (abhiyān). See Mission meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is mission?
Mission can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce mission?
Mission is pronounced /ˈmɪʃ.ən/.
What is the plural of mission?
The plural of mission is missions.

Words near mission in the dictionary

  1. missiologically
  2. missiologies
  3. missiologist
  4. missiologists
  5. missiology
  6. mission
  7. mission accomplished
  8. Mission burrito
  9. Mission burritos
  10. Mission Canyon
  11. mission creep

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mission (page history and authors); Mission (page history and authors); अभियान (Hindi) (page history and authors); mission (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); রিসালত (Bengali) (page history and authors); mission (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অভিযান (Assamese) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-mission.ogg.

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