missionary
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missionary
A person who travels to another region or culture in order to spread their religious beliefs, usually Christianity.
Als Missionar verbrachte er Jahrzehnte in Afrika und baute dort Schulen und Krankenhäuser.
As a missionary, he spent decades in Africa and built schools and hospitals there.
The word 'Missionar' (missionary) is derived from the noun 'die Mission' (mission). A mission is an assignment or task, often with an idealistic or religious goal. So a missionary is literally a person with a mission.
Seine Mission war es, den Menschen in der Region zu helfen.
His mission was to help the people in the region.
'Missionar' (missionary) is a masculine noun of the N-declension. This means that in all cases except the nominative singular, it takes the ending '-en'. A common mistake is to forget this ending in the accusative or dative.
Ich habe gestern einen Missionar getroffen.
I met a missionary yesterday.
You can often recognize the figurative meaning from the context. If it is not about religion, but about topics like politics, environmental protection, or a particular way of life, it means the person who wants to convince others of an idea. This is often reinforced by adjectives like 'echter' (real) or 'wahrer' (true).
In Sachen gesunder Ernährung ist sie eine wahre Missionarin.
When it comes to healthy eating, she is a true missionary.
priest
'der Priester' and 'der Missionar' can both occur in a religious context, especially in Christianity. A priest has a church office and often works in a congregation, for example in religious services and pastoral duties. A missionary travels or works with the goal of spreading their religion in another region or culture. In addition, 'Missionar' can also figuratively mean a person who strongly wants to convince others of an idea. Learners may confuse the words because a priest can also do missionary work. But 'Priester' describes the office, while 'Missionar' mainly describes the task of spreading something.
Der Missionar lebt seit vielen Jahren in einem kleinen Dorf und erzählt dort von seinem Glauben.
The missionary has lived in a small village for many years and talks about his faith there.
Im Gespräch erklärt der Priester der Familie den Ablauf der Beerdigung.
In the conversation, the priest explains the order of the funeral to the family.