apostle

noun

Simple meaning

Any important early teacher of Christianity or a Christian missionary to a people.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhpahsuhl

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US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

əˈpɑsəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

Any important early teacher of Christianity or a Christian missionary to a people
A missionary, or leader of a religious mission, especially one in the early Christian Church (but see Apostle).
An ardent early supporter of a cause or reform
A pioneer or early advocate of a particular cause, prophet of a belief.
A top-ranking ecclesiastical official in the twelve seat administrative council of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A transliteration of the Greek male given name Απόστολος (Apóstolos). A rare transcription; usually transliterated as Apostolos.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Any important early teacher of Christianity or a Christian missionary to a people

Used this way, apostle is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Serious and weighty
Usage feel: Formal and precise

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use apostle

“An apostle of revolution.”noun

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

apostle johnapostle petergreat apostleholy apostleblessed apostlefirst apostlechief apostletrue apostle

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

apostle of the gentilesnounCompound term
A Christian missionary to the Gentiles.
apostle paulnounCompound term
A Christian missionary to the Gentiles.
epistle of paul the apostle to philemonnounCompound term
A New Testament book containing an epistle from Saint Paul to Philemon asking Philemon to forgive the slave for escaping.
epistle of paul the apostle to the colossiansnounCompound term
A New Testament book containing an epistle from Saint Paul to the Colossians in ancient Phrygia.
epistle of paul the apostle to the ephesiansnounCompound term
A New Testament book containing the epistle from Saint Paul to the Ephesians which explains the divine plan for the world and the consummation of this in Christ.
epistle of paul the apostle to the galatiansnounCompound term
A New Testament book containing the epistle from Saint Paul to the Galatians.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

jesusnoun
christnoun
evangelistnoun
apostolicadjective

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.