priest
/ˈpɹiːst/
priest noun: a religious clergyman (clergywoman, clergyperson) who is trained to perform services or sacrifices at a church or temple.
Noun
priest (plural priests)
- A religious clergyman (clergywoman, clergyperson) who is trained to perform services or sacrifices at a church or temple.
- The priest at the Catholic church heard his confession.
- The Shinto priest burnt incense for his ancestors.
- A blunt tool, used for quickly stunning and killing fish.
- They flop and struggle, but she unhooks them swiftly, stunning them with a small brass priest.1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 212
- The highest office in the Aaronic priesthood.
Verb
priest (third-person singular simple present priests, present participle priesting, simple past and past participle priested)
- To ordain as a priest.
- If there bee any lasie fellow, any that cannot away with worke, any that would wallow in pleasures, hee is hastie to be priested. And when hee is made one, and has gotten a benefice, he consorts with his neighbour priests, who are altogether given to pleasures; and then both hee, and they, live...1610, Alexander Cooke, Pope Joane, in William Oldys, editor, The Harleian Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, as well in Manuscript as in Print...
- He was deaconed on the 23rd May, and priested on the 29th September, 1624, by John, Bishop of Sodar and Man.1869, George Bennett, The History of Bandon, Francis Guy, page 518
Proper noun capitalized: Priest
Priest
- A surname.
priest meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
priest in Hindi
- clergyman (clergywoman, clergyperson)
- याजक yājak, पादरी pādrī, काहिन kāhin
priest in Tamil
- பூசாரி, குருக்கள், பாதிரியார்
priest in Marathi
- पुजारी, पुरोहित, पुजारीला
priest in Urdu
- clergyman (clergywoman, clergyperson)
- پادْری pādrī, کاہِن
More languagesFewer languages
- priest in Bengali
- যাজক jajok
- priest in Telugu
- అర్చకుడు arcakuḍu, ఒజ్జే ojjē, ఒజ్జ ojja
- priest in Malayalam
- പുരോഹിതൻ purōhitaṉ
- priest in Kannada
- ಪಾದ್ರಿ, ತಮ್ಮಡಿ, ಪುರೋಹಿತ, ಪೂಜಾರಿ
- priest in Punjabi
- پاندھا pāṉdhā
- priest in Gujarati
- પંડયો paṇḍyo
- priest in Odia
- ପୂଜକ, ପୁରୋହିତ
- priest in Sanskrit
- ब्रह्म brahma
- priest in Assamese
- ঠাকুৰ thakur
- priest in Nepali
- पुजारी, पादरी, पूजाहारी
- priest in Pashto
- پادري pādri, کاهن kāhǝn, کشیش kašiš
- priest in Tagalog
- pari
- priest in Arabic
- كَاهِن kāhin, قِسِّيس qissīs, قِسّ qiss, قَسّ qass
- priest in Malay
- paderi, imam
- priest in Indonesian
- pendeta, imam
- priest in Persian
- کندا kondā
- priest in Thai
- หลวงพ่อ lǔuang-pɔ̂ɔ, พระ prá, พระสงฆ์ prá sǒng, นักบวช nák-bùuat
- priest in Vietnamese
- mục sư, linh mục
- priest in Myanmar
- ရဟန်း ra.han:
Examples of priest in a sentence
- The Israelite priests were descended from Moses' brother Aaron.
- Until the middle of the tenth century it had been quite routine for priests to be married.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000...
- If there bee any lasie fellow, any that cannot away with worke, any that would wallow in pleasures, hee is hastie to be priested.1610, Alexander Cooke, Pope Joane, in William Oldys, editor, The Harleian Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining...
- Chapman was a lay missionary and was not deaconed until 1844 and priested in 1852.1992, Allan Davidson, Donald D. Hook, “New Zealand's Prayer Book”, in Anglican and Episcopal History, 61.3, pages 247-251:
- Thus, Samuel Seabury... was deaconed by the Bishop of Lincoln and priested by the Bishop of Carlisle.2013, Gregory K. Cameron, “Locating the Anglican Communion in the History of Anglicanism”, in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican...
Forms of priest
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | priests |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | priests |
| present participle | priesting |
| past participle | priested |
| past | priested |
Origin of priest
From Middle English prest, preest, from Old English prēost (“priest”), from Late Latin presbyter, from Ancient Greek πρεσβύτερος (presbúteros), from πρέσβυς (présbus, “elder, older”). Reinforced in Middle English by Old French prestre, also from Latin presbyter. Doublet of presbyter and prester. * The Tyndale Bible uses native English elder instead.
From Middle English Prest.
Words formed from priest
- a dumb priest never got a parish
- antipriest
- archpriest
- archpriesthood
- astronomer-priest
- brown priest
- chief priest
- choke-priest
- die roaring for a priest
- fetish priest
- head priest
- hedge priest
- highpriest
- high priest
- high priestess
- highpriesthood
- highpriestly
- highpriestship
- hypepriest
- kill-priest
- mass priest
- parish priest
- priestal
- priestcap
- priestcraft
- priest-doctor
- priestdom
- priestery
- priestess
- Priestfield
- priest hole
- priesthood
- priestianity
- priestish
- priestism
- priest-king
- priestless
- priestlet
- priestlike
- priestliness
- priestling
- priestly
- priest-monk
- priestress
- priest-ridden
- priestship
- priestx
- protopriest
- proto-priest
- religious priest
- supply priest
- underpriest
- unpriest
- worker-priest
Phrases with priest
Words that rhyme with priest
- beast
- east
- yeast
- deceased
- feast
- least
- creased
- east-northeast
- a contented mind is a perpetual feast
- batiste
- ceased
- English Harbour East
12 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about priest
- What does priest mean?
- Priest means a religious clergyman (clergywoman, clergyperson) who is trained to perform services or sacrifices at a church or temple.
- What is priest in Hindi?
- Priest in Hindi is याजक (yājak), पादरी (pādrī), काहिन (kāhin). See Priest meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use priest in a sentence?
- The Israelite priests were descended from Moses' brother Aaron.
- What part of speech is priest?
- Priest can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce priest?
- Priest is pronounced /ˈpɹiːst/.
- What is the plural of priest?
- The plural of priest is priests.
Words near priest in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: priest (page history and authors); Priest (page history and authors); priest (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); priest (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); అర్చకుడు (Telugu) (page history and authors); priest (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); پاندھا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); પંડયો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); priest (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ब्रह्म (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); ঠাকুৰ (Assamese) (page history and authors); priest (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-priest.ogg, En-uk-priest.ogg.
Cite this entry: “priest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/priest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.