Ecclesiast
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A member of the Athenian ecclesia (public legislative assembly).
- 2 A member of any ecclesia (church or other assembly). rare
"... way of Grace, Charity, and this new way was to treat everyone as if he is your brother And that unlike the chosen race of the Jews you don't have to be born into this set of people the ecclesia which is the Greek word for Church, so to join the right church we automatically become an ecclesiast. You can join if you follow your inner mind, What now passes of as Jewish is a sect of people who follow all sorts of extended Old Testament rules and solidly based for the Israeli's of that era."
- 3 A cleric; someone (such as a priest) who administers a church (ecclesia) or other religious gathering/group.
"As we have seen, the Waldensians took the apostolic lives led by their barbes as proof that they spoke the truth, just as, contrariwise, it proved the priests who lived unworthy lives had no power. Again, Monet Rey gives the most precise explanation of the matter in 1494: The ecclesiasts had and possessed too great wealth and more goods than they needed; it was for that reason that they committed many bad actions; [...]"
- 1 The author of Ecclesiastes, traditionally considered to be King Solomon.
Example
More examples"... way of Grace, Charity, and this new way was to treat everyone as if he is your brother And that unlike the chosen race of the Jews you don't have to be born into this set of people the ecclesia which is the Greek word for Church, so to join the right church we automatically become an ecclesiast. You can join if you follow your inner mind, What now passes of as Jewish is a sect of people who follow all sorts of extended Old Testament rules and solidly based for the Israeli's of that era."
Etymology
From Middle English ecclesiaste, from Latin ecclēsiastēs, from Ancient Greek ἐκκλησιαστής (ekklēsiastḗs). By surface analysis, ecclesia + -ast.
More for "ecclesiast"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.