presbyter

American  

[prez-bi-ter, pres-] / ˈprɛz bɪ tər, ˈprɛs- /

noun

1. (in the early Christian church) an office bearer who exercised teaching, priestly, and administrative functions.

2. (in hierarchical churches) a priest.

3. an elder in a Presbyterian church.

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presbyter British  

/ ˈprɛzbɪtə /

noun

1. 1. an elder of a congregation in the early Christian Church

   2. (in some Churches having episcopal politics) an official who is subordinate to a bishop and has administrative, teaching, and sacerdotal functions

2. (in some hierarchical Churches) another name for priest

3. 1. a teaching elder

   2. a ruling elder

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Other Word Forms

• nonpresbyter noun
• presbyteral adjective

Etymology

Origin of presbyter

1590–1600; < Late Latin, noun use of the adj.: older < Greek presbýteros, equivalent to présby ( s ) old + -teros comparative suffix

Example Sentences

“When Mona asked … for just about everybody in the Presbyterian, it was an instantaneous recognition of how much sense this made,” said Wendy Tajima, executive presbyter, or spiritual leader, of the church.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 19, 2025

Pastor Yakov Dukhonchenko is Ukrainian senior presbyter for the government-recognized All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, those Soviet Protestants who have chosen to accept state regulation.

From Time Magazine Archive

Stephen, an obscure Roman presbyter, was elected Pope on March 2-3, 752, but two days later, before he could be crowned, died of apoplexy.

From Time Magazine Archive

Technically, what the presbyter vagans did by reading the marriage service was to pronounce a benediction.

From Time Magazine Archive

We are informed in a Coptic colophon at the end, that the Book was edited by “Henry Tattam the presbyter of the Anglican Church for the Holy Patriarch and the Church of Christ in Egypt.”

From A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II. by Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose