ACOLYTE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does acolyte mean? 

• ACOLYTE (noun)
  The noun ACOLYTE has 1 sense:

1. someone who assists a priest or minister in a liturgical service; a cleric ordained in the highest of the minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church but not in the Anglican Church or the Eastern Orthodox Churches

  Familiarity information: ACOLYTE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACOLYTE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who assists a priest or minister in a liturgical service; a cleric ordained in the highest of the minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church but not in the Anglican Church or the Eastern Orthodox Churches

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("acolyte" is a kind of...):

clergyman; man of the cloth; reverend (a member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church)

Holy Order; Order ((usually plural) the status or rank or office of a Christian clergyman in an ecclesiastical hierarchy)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "acolyte"):

altar boy (a boy serving as an acolyte)

thurifer (an acolyte who carries a thurible)

 Context examples 

“I would fain to France with my friends here,” Alleyne answered; “but I am a man of peace—a reader, exorcist, acolyte, and clerk.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I put forward this obvious reflection, not out of any desire to disparage Mr. Waldron in particular, but that you may not lose your sense of proportion and mistake the acolyte for the high priest.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Acolyte?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)