evangelist

[ ih-van-juh-list ]

noun

1. a Protestant minister or layperson who serves as an itinerant or special preacher, especially a revivalist.
2. a preacher of the gospel.
3. (initial capital letter) any of the writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) of the four Gospels.
4. (in the primitive church) a person who first brought the gospel to a city or region.
5. (initial capital letter) Mormon Church. a patriarch.
6. a person marked by evangelical enthusiasm for or support of any cause.

evangelist

¹

/ ɪˈvændʒɪlɪst /

noun

1. an occasional preacher, sometimes itinerant and often preaching at meetings in the open air
2. a preacher of the Christian gospel
3. any zealous advocate of a cause
4. See revivalist
   another word for revivalist

Evangelist

²

/ ɪˈvændʒɪlɪst /

noun

1. any of the writers of the New Testament Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John
2. a senior official or dignitary of the Mormon Church

Word History and Origins

Origin of evangelist¹

1125–75; Middle English evangeliste < Latin evangelista < Greek euangelistḗs. See evangel ¹, -ist

Example Sentences

Oveis Gharan hopes that it will now play that role for the geometry of polynomials, for which he has become an eager evangelist.

From Quanta Magazine

We’ve all read, and perhaps experienced, how psilocybin rewires our brains, and so were anxious to hear what the “fungal evangelist” had to say about the environmental impact of tripping.

From Nautilus

They saw they see the acquisition boosting growth of the Matrix ecosystem as a whole other developer community gets plugged in and — they hope — converted to evangelists for the open network.

From TechCrunch

Since his influential work on psilocybin mushrooms in the 1970s, he has grown into an unlikely hybrid between fungal evangelist and tycoon.

From Nautilus

Among them is David Hayes, “the Praying Medic,” whom the Atlantic called “one of the best-known QAnon evangelists on the planet.”

From MIT Technology Review

The book was optioned to HBO in 2011, around the time evangelist Harold Camping claimed The Rapture would occur—on May 21, 2011.

From The Daily Beast

The predatory return of evangelist-turned-vampire Reverend Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian)?

From The Daily Beast

Her third book, about the world-traveling adventuress, actress and yoga evangelist Indra Devi, will be published by Knopf in 2012.

From The Daily Beast

Each evangelist had his little knot of three or four companions, but these had come with him, and of hearers they had none.

From Project Gutenberg

On learning her name he knew her instantly by fame as the widely traveled and much beloved prison evangelist.

From Project Gutenberg

From that time, she has acted as an itinerant evangelist, preaching in summer in the open air.

From Project Gutenberg

He remarked that he had become acquainted with me through the Christian Evangelist, published by Bro.

From Project Gutenberg

The wife of a traveling evangelist will always be the proper object of pity and sympathy, if pity and sympathy are to be given.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• missionary
• pastor
• televangelist