noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A highly ranked non-monastic deacon who has special privileges.
2. 2
   In the Catholic Church, most senior Cardinal, in charge of presenting the newly elected Pope by saying habemus papam.

Etymology

From proto- + deacon.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.