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Glite Dictionary
🔄 For changing beliefs 🗣️ A persuader
conversionary

conversionary

8.4
Relating to changing something from one form to another, for example in religion or technology
  • adjective
  • /kənˈvɜrʒənˌɛri/
  • Specialized
translation icon : de conversión
  • By then, thousands of Christians on both sides of the Pacific had come to view conversionary missions as culturally imperialistic at best and morally indefensible at worst.
  • conversionary mission

Examples

  • She attended a conversionary seminar to learn how to effectively discuss her faith with others.

  • To be sure, with what can only be described as conversionary zeal, Miss Schneider tried regularly to "remedy" my religious status, a project that led my parents to remove me from her classroom by February.

    Academic text (1992)

  • The church's conversionary efforts were aimed at reaching out to the local community and sharing their beliefs.

  • The missionary organization focused on conversionary activities to help spread their message globally.

Surface Forms

conversionary positive

Morphology

conversionary = conversion (transparent) = conversion + ary

The adjective is a straightforward derivation from the noun 'conversion' with the productive suffix '-ary' meaning 'relating to'.

Etymology

The word conversionary comes from conversion and convert, where convert means 'to change' or 'to turn'. The ending -ary makes it an adjective, so a conversionary event or method is used to 'turn' people or systems to a new belief or state.