RELIGIOUS LEADER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does religious leader mean? 

• RELIGIOUS LEADER (noun)
  The noun RELIGIOUS LEADER has 1 sense:

1. leader of a religious order

  Familiarity information: RELIGIOUS LEADER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RELIGIOUS LEADER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Leader of a religious order

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("religious leader" is a kind of...):

religious person (a person who manifests devotion to a deity)

leader (a person who rules or guides or inspires others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "religious leader"):

ayatollah (a high-ranking Shiite religious leader who is regarded as an authority on religious law and its interpretation and who has political power as well)

guru (a Hindu or Buddhist religious leader and spiritual teacher)

Guru (each of the first ten leaders of the Sikh religion)

Instance hyponyms:

Mahdi ((Islam) a messianic leader who (according to popular Muslim belief) will appear before the end of the world and restore justice and religion)

Al-hakim (an Ismaili caliph of Egypt who declared himself an incarnation of God and founded the Druze religious sect (985-1021))

Asanga (Indian religious leader and founder of the Yogacara school of Buddhism in India (4th century))

Joshua ((Old Testament) Moses' successor who led the Israelites into the Promised Land; best remembered for his destruction of Jericho)

Ayatollah Khomeini; Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini; Khomeini; Ruholla Khomeini (Iranian religious leader of the Shiites; when Shah Pahlavi's regime fell Khomeini established a new constitution giving himself supreme powers (1900-1989))

Moon; Sun Myung Moon (United States religious leader (born in Korea) who founded the Unification Church in 1954; was found guilty of conspiracy to evade taxes (born in 1920))

Guru Nanak; Nanak (Indian religious leader who founded Sikhism in dissent from the caste system of Hinduism; he taught that all men had a right to search for knowledge of God and that spiritual liberation could be attained by meditating on the name of God (1469-1538))

Charles Taze Russell; Russell (United States religious leader who founded the sect that is now called Jehovah's Witnesses (1852-1916))

Elizabeth Seton; Mother Seton; Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton; Seton (United States religious leader who was the first person born in the United States to be canonized (1774-1821))

Isaac Mayer Wise; Wise (United States religious leader (born in Bohemia) who united reform Jewish organizations in the United States (1819-1900))

Stephen Samuel Wise; Wise (United States Jewish leader (born in Hungary) (1874-1949))

Brigham Young; Young (United States religious leader of the Mormon Church after the assassination of Joseph Smith; he led the Mormon exodus from Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah (1801-1877))

 Context examples 

Liberian officials say most of the 31 patients infected attended the April 22 funeral of a religious leader in Sinoe County.

(Experts Link Fatal Mystery Illness in Liberia to Meningitis Bacteria, VOA)