different between minister vs minster

English

Etymology

From Middle English ministre, from Old French ministre, from Latin minister (“an attendant, servant, assistant, a priest's assistant or other under official”), from minor (“less”) + -ter; see minor.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?m?n?st?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m?n?st?/

Noun

minister (plural ministers)

1. A person who is trained to preach, to perform religious ceremonies, and to afford pastoral care at a Protestant church.

2. A politician who heads a ministry (national or regional government department for public service).
3. In diplomacy, the rank of diplomat directly below ambassador.
4. A servant; a subordinate; an officer or assistant of inferior rank; hence, an agent, an instrument.

Usage notes

Not to be confused with minster.

Hypernyms

• (Chief minister in areas of Central Europe and Scandinavia): provost

Derived terms

• ministress

Related terms

• ministerial
• ministerium
• ministrix
• ministry

Translations

Verb

minister (third-person singular simple present ministers, present participle ministering, simple past and past participle ministered)

1. (transitive) To attend to (the needs of); to tend; to take care (of); to give aid; to give service.
2. to function as a clergyman or as the officiant in church worship
3. (transitive, archaic) To afford, to give, to supply.
   • 1673, Jeremy Taylor, Heniaytos: A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year […]

     We minister to God reason to suspect us.

Translations

See also

• cleric
• father
• parson
• pastor
• priest
• vicar

Further reading

• minister in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• minister in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Tenriism, Terminis, interims, ministre, smirnite

Danish

Etymology

From Latin minister.

Noun

minister c (definite singular ministeren, indefinite plural ministre, definite plural ministrene)

1. a minister (a politician who heads a ministry)

Descendants

• ? Greenlandic: ministeri

Further reading

• “minister” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi?n?st?r/

Noun

minister m (plural ministers, diminutive ministertje n)

1. A minister, a person who is commissioned by the government for public service.

Inari Sami

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

minister

1. minister (politician)

Inflection

Derived terms

• ruttâminister

Ladin

Noun

minister m (plural ministeres)

1. minister
2. ministry

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *minosteros. Equivalent to minus + comparative suffix *-tero-. Compare magister.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /mi?nis.ter/, [m??n?s?t??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /mi?nis.ter/, [mi?nist??r]

Noun

minister m (genitive ministr?, feminine ministra or ministr?x); second declension

1. attendant, servant, waiter
2. agent, aide
3. accomplice

Declension

Second-declension noun (nominative singular in -er).

Coordinate terms

• magister
• ministra f
• ministr?x f

Derived terms

• ministerium
• ministr?

Descendants

References

• minister in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• minister in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

minister

1. Alternative form of ministre

Etymology 2

Verb

minister

1. Alternative form of mynystren

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

minister m (definite singular ministeren, indefinite plural ministere or ministre or ministrer, definite plural ministerne or ministrene)

1. (government) a minister (politician who heads a ministry)

Derived terms

References

• “minister” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

minister m (definite singular ministeren, indefinite plural ministrar, definite plural ministrane)

1. (government) a minister (politician who heads a ministry)

Derived terms

References

• “minister” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

From Latin minister.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?i??i.st?r/

Noun

minister m pers

1. (politics) minister

Declension

Noun

minister f

1. (politics) female minister

Declension

The feminine version is indeclinable.

Further reading

• minister in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• minister in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

From French ministère.

Noun

minister n (plural ministere)

1. ministry

Related terms

• ministru

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

minister c

1. a minister (member of government, cabinet)
2. a minister (in the foreign affairs administration)

Declension

Derived terms

West Frisian

Etymology

Borrowed from French ministre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi?n?st?r/, /m??n?st?r/

Noun

minister c (plural ministers)

1. minister (of a government)

Derived terms

• minister-presidint

Further reading

• “minister”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Etymology

From Middle English menstre, from Old English mynster, from Latin monast?rium (“monastery”), from Ancient Greek ??????????? (monast?rion, “monastery; solitary dwelling”). Doublet of monastery.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?nst?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?nst?/
• Hyphenation: min?ster

Noun

minster (plural minsters)

1. A monastic church.
2. A cathedral church without any monastic connection.

Usage notes

Not to be confused with minister.

Derived terms

• Axminster
• Ilminster
• Westminster

Translations

Anagrams

• Minters, entrism, minters, remints