as in clergyman
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of deaconess
Then in 1964, Parks became a deaconess in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
—
Jacqueline Howard, CNN, 22 Feb. 2025
Born in a homestead just north of the D.C. border in 1930 and 1933, the brothers were raised in historic St. Phillips Baptist Church, where their father was an associate minister and their mother a deaconess.
—Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 8 Feb. 2024
The Pauline epistles contain numerous references to women who were instrumental in the leadership of the early church: Phoebe, a deaconess; Chloe; Apphia; Euodia; Nympha; Junia.
—Cressida Leyshon, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023
More recently, a Nov. 15, 2021 issue of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel noted that in 2017, Israeli archaeologists uncovered stones and mosaics memorializing Theodosia the deaconess and Gregoria the deaconess in the ruins of a 1,600-year-old basilica in Ashdod.
—Susan Degrane, chicagotribune.com, 30 Mar. 2022
In her younger years, Webb was an avid churchgoer in Baltimore, Maryland alongside her father, a deacon, and her mother, a deaconess, who met in a church choir.
—Robyn Mowatt, ELLE, 22 June 2023
Welcome to the Rehearsal Club, an artist residency and the one-year-old reincarnation of a nonprofit organization founded in 1913 by Jane Harriss Hall, an Episcopal deaconess, and Jean Greer, the daughter of New York’s Episcopal bishop.
—Joanne Kaufman, New York Times, 27 Jan. 2023
The virus also claimed the life of Shirley Miller, 70, a deaconess who assisted with baptisms and communion.
—Ray Sanchez, CNN, 18 Apr. 2020
Today, the deaconesses can again access their own cemetery and visit the graves of their sisters.
—Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2019
Jacqueline Howard, CNN, 22 Feb. 2025
Born in a homestead just north of the D.C. border in 1930 and 1933, the brothers were raised in historic St. Phillips Baptist Church, where their father was an associate minister and their mother a deaconess.
—Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 8 Feb. 2024
The Pauline epistles contain numerous references to women who were instrumental in the leadership of the early church: Phoebe, a deaconess; Chloe; Apphia; Euodia; Nympha; Junia.
—Cressida Leyshon, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023
More recently, a Nov. 15, 2021 issue of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel noted that in 2017, Israeli archaeologists uncovered stones and mosaics memorializing Theodosia the deaconess and Gregoria the deaconess in the ruins of a 1,600-year-old basilica in Ashdod.
—Susan Degrane, chicagotribune.com, 30 Mar. 2022
In her younger years, Webb was an avid churchgoer in Baltimore, Maryland alongside her father, a deacon, and her mother, a deaconess, who met in a church choir.
—Robyn Mowatt, ELLE, 22 June 2023
Welcome to the Rehearsal Club, an artist residency and the one-year-old reincarnation of a nonprofit organization founded in 1913 by Jane Harriss Hall, an Episcopal deaconess, and Jean Greer, the daughter of New York’s Episcopal bishop.
—Joanne Kaufman, New York Times, 27 Jan. 2023
The virus also claimed the life of Shirley Miller, 70, a deaconess who assisted with baptisms and communion.
—Ray Sanchez, CNN, 18 Apr. 2020
Today, the deaconesses can again access their own cemetery and visit the graves of their sisters.
—Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for deaconess
Noun
-
Ralph Fiennes plays Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, a British clergyman who is the dean of the College of Cardinals at the Vatican.—
Armond White,
National Review,
19 Feb. 2025
-
The occasion marked the halfway point between the winter and spring equinoxes, with clergymen blessing used candles and handing them out to locals every February 2.—
Rachel Dobkin,
Newsweek,
2 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
Someone who would later make his living from teaching the Course and selling his own tapes, lectures, and videos would have obvious mercenary reasons to construct the story of Helen as a true, reluctant priestess, the project as foreordained, and Jesus as the book’s authentic Voice.—
Sheila Heti,
Harper's Magazine,
2 Sep. 2024
-
The origin story centers on Kraven's upbringing under a ruthless crime lord dad (Russell Crowe) and journey to become the world's greatest hunter, with Ariana DeBose as voodoo priestess Calypso and Alessandro Nivola as villainous Rhino.—
KiMi Robinson,
USA TODAY,
12 Dec. 2024
Noun
-
Declining giving and church attendance are a national phenomenon, but some on the board of deacons saw it as an existential threat.—
Frank Langfitt,
NPR,
4 Feb. 2025
-
There were rabbis, imams, bishops and deacons from across the city, reflecting the diversity of the victims and New Orleans.—
Carlie Kollath Wells,
Axios,
6 Jan. 2025
Noun
-
Jérémie attaches himself to a local bishop (Jacques Develay) in the process, sending everyone, including the village priest, into a psychosexual frenzy.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
21 Feb. 2025
-
The Holy Father has clearly identified for the U.S. bishops and Church the protection and advocacy for the dignity of migrants as the preeminent urgency at this moment.—
Thomas G. Moukawsher,
Newsweek,
12 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
This would be the case also for an apostate, heretic, schismatic bishop, presbyter, or deacon.—
Fr. Goran Jovicic,
National Review,
13 June 2021
-
The Rev. Allen D. Timm, executive presbyter of the Presbytery Church in Detroit, said the church is waiting to hear from the general assembly as to when volunteers will be dispatched to Houston.—
Allie Gross,
Detroit Free Press,
29 Aug. 2017
Noun
-
John Cranfield, interim dean of the University of Guelph's agricultural college, added that empty shelves could lead customers to shop with competitors.—
Ayana Archie,
NPR,
13 Feb. 2025
-
Smith, also a defendant in the pending lawsuit against UNCSA, stepped down from his position as music dean the year after Shipps’ departure.—
Sara Coello,
Charlotte Observer,
3 Feb. 2025
Noun
-
Pentecostalism was about two decades old at the time, and its early practices of interracial worship, speaking in tongues, and divine healing were subjects of lively conversation among the relatively staid and respectable churchmen of mainline Protestantism.—
Andrew Cockburn,
Harper's Magazine,
19 Aug. 2024
-
If the dominant Spaniards of The Betrothed are unjust, self-interested, and pompous, few of the Italians — including churchmen — are any better.—
David Harsanyi,
National Review,
25 Jan. 2024
Noun
-
Within the faith there’s no real hierarchy; there are no popes, priests or clergy.—
Peter Kiefer,
The Hollywood Reporter,
21 Feb. 2025
-
In an interview with Vatican News, the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest of the Church of the Holy Family, the only Roman Catholic church in Gaza, says Pope Francis has called from the hospital at 8 p.m. Gaza time every night.—
Ruth Sherlock,
NPR,
18 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Deaconess.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/deaconess. Accessed 27 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share