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Beginning around 1540, an order of Catholic priests known as the Jesuits began to send its members to many parts of the world to convert peoples who believed in other gods to Christianity. Wherever they went, the Catholic missionaries built central buildings for their religious work, and the buildings themselves became known as missions; many 17th-century missions in the American West and Southwest are now preserved as museums. Their foes, the Protestants, soon began sending out their own missionaries, and today Protestant missionaries are probably far more numerous.
Examples of missionary in a Sentence
Louis Casiano, FOXNews.com, 15 May 2026
Russia later expanded into Alaska through the fur trade, bringing Orthodox missionaries, new trade networks, and profound cultural change to Indigenous communities across the region.
—Josh Rivera, USA Today, 14 May 2026
Nicole Brown Chau, CBS News, 18 May 2026
For most of the late 19th and 20th centuries, plantation-style agriculture dominated Hawaii, as companies like Dole and conglomerates founded by missionary descendants grew immense fields of sugarcane or pineapple for export.
—ABC News, 16 May 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Missionary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/missionary. Accessed 22 May. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
missionary
1 of 2 adjective
missionary
2 of 2 noun
