priestess

CEFRB1

/ˈpriːstɛs/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
A woman who performs religious ceremonies or serves a god.
02
noun
Extra detail
A female Christian priest or minister, typically in a Protestant, Old Catholic, or independent Catholic denomination.

Examples

Mary dressed as an ancient Egyptian priestess.
His mother is a priestess.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Also pronounced

/ˈpristɪs/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

A priest’s wife.
A woman with religious duties and responsibilities in certain religions.

verb

Extra meaning

To oversee (a pagan ceremony, etc.) as priestess.

More examples

In context

Priestessing the earth is for me personally the only natural response to the awe and deep love this evokes in me.
I priestessed the ceremony. I played Hecate. One time I played Demeter and my daughter played Persephone.
Ye Ye Ife, a gifted feminist ritualist and priestess of Oshun from San Diego, trained in the Yoruba tradition, designed and priestessed the ritual with me.

Quick test

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Question 1 · Quick check

In ancient temples, the blank would perform sacred rituals to honor the goddess.

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Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

Sir Knight, said she (whose looks, language, and gesture create strange thoughts within me) be pleased to know, that I am (I will not say the first) of those Ladies of Honour, who wait upon the high-born, illustrious, and refulgent Maulkina, Daughter to the high and mighty Prince Paraclet, Prince of No-Land, on the confines of whose Territories we now are, so it is that the Divine Maulkina having been a vowed Votaress to Diana (whose Priestess she was, and whose Oracles she exhibited) upon a night as she sat at the feet of the Image of that chaste Deity […]
1656, Samuel Holland, Don Zara Del Fogo, London, retrieved 24 Nov 2019, page 118
Among the Northern tribes also the woman was held in all moral aspects the equal of man. Alike the blue-eyed wife of the Barbarian and the proud Roman matron were, as the bearers and breeders of the race, the equals of the fighters and rulers of the race. The importance of their functions was fully recognized and respected, and the priestess at the sylvan altar, the vestals serving the fires and the temples at Rome were held worthy to speak face to face with the gods and convey their blessings to man.
1894 June, Elizabeth Bisland, “The Cry of the Women”, in The North American Review, volume 158, number 451, →ISSN, →JSTOR, retrieved 24 Nov 2019, page 758
Ye Ye Ife, a gifted feminist ritualist and priestess of Oshun from San Diego, trained in the Yoruba tradition, designed and priestessed the ritual with me.
1998, Wendy Hunter Roberts, Celebrating Her: Feminist Ritualizing Comes of Age, page 124
Priestessing the earth is for me personally the only natural response to the awe and deep love this evokes in me.
2014, Danu Forest, Celtic Tree Magic: Ogham Lore and Druid Mysteries
I priestessed the ceremony. I played Hecate. One time I played Demeter and my daughter played Persephone.
2014, John C. Sulak, Carl Llewellyn Weschcke, Oberon Zell, The Wizard and the Witch: Seven Decades of Counterculture, Magick & Paganism

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Origin

noun

From priest + -ess. Compare Middle English preesteresse (“priestess”). Piecewise doublet of presbyteress.

Deep Dive

noun

verb

More examples

Related

Quick test

In ancient temples, the blank— would perform sacred rituals to honor the goddess.

Nearby

Origin

noun

In ancient temples, the blank would perform sacred rituals to honor the goddess.