DEACON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does deacon mean? 

• DEACON (noun)
  The noun DEACON has 2 senses:

1. a Protestant layman who assists the minister

2. a cleric ranking just below a priest in Christian churches; one of the Holy Orders

  Familiarity information: DEACON used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEACON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A Protestant layman who assists the minister

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

deacon; Protestant deacon

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

church officer (a church official)

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

deaconess (a woman deacon)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A cleric ranking just below a priest in Christian churches; one of the Holy Orders

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("deacon" 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)

 Context examples 

"I must indeed," I said; for when just now I repeated the offer of serving him for a deacon, he expressed himself shocked at my want of decency.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)