presbyterianism
/ˌpɹɛz.bɪˈtɪə.ɹɪə.nɪ.zəm/US/ˌpɹɛz.bɪˈtɪɹ.iə.nɪ.zəm/
presbyterianism noun: that form of church government which invests presbyters with all spiritual power, and admits no prelates over them; also, the faith and polity of the Presbyterian churches, taken collectively.
Noun (1)
presbyterianism (uncountable)
- That form of church government which invests presbyters with all spiritual power, and admits no prelates over them; also, the faith and polity of the Presbyterian churches, taken collectively.
Noun (2) capitalized: Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism (uncountable)
- A form of Protestant Christianity based on Calvinism.
- A form of Christian church government characterized by rule by bodies of presbyters or elders.
Origin of presbyterianism
From presbyterian + -ism.
From Presbyterian + -ism.
Words formed from presbyterianism
Questions about presbyterianism
- What does presbyterianism mean?
- Presbyterianism means that form of church government which invests presbyters with all spiritual power, and admits no prelates over them; also, the faith and polity of the Presbyterian churches, taken collectively.
- What part of speech is presbyterianism?
- Presbyterianism is a noun.
- How do you pronounce presbyterianism?
- Presbyterianism is pronounced /ˌpɹɛz.bɪˈtɪə.ɹɪə.nɪ.zəm/ (UK).
Words near presbyterianism in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: presbyterianism (page history and authors); Presbyterianism (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Presbyterianism.wav.
Cite this entry: “presbyterianism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/presbyterianism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.