missionary work
8
3.9
- noun
- /ˈmɪʃənˌɛri wɜrk/
- They want to hear all about the missionary work you did with Brother Munson.
- Christian missionary work
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Watch on YouTubeSo my parent, my my grandfather met his wife in Nicaragua doing missionary work a long time ago.
- So my parent, my my grandfather met his wife in Nicaragua doing missionary work a long time ago.
- Well, I'm saying when we, when we go to Haiti to do missionary work, understand that my mother and my father, nobody that's there with us speaks French.
Examples
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He's doing missionary work in India.
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I'm about to begin missionary work in the Turkana district.
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My big brother did some missionary work for New Life.
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I wanted to do some missionary work before school.
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I did some missionary work there years ago.
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We were just talking about all your missionary work, it's so great.
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Well, now, why do you give money at church for the missionary work?
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Protestant missionary work has a long history in the country.
Academic text (2007) -
They do missionary work in Uganda.
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The students traveled to Haiti for spring break to do missionary work and provide medical assistance.
Synonyms
117
3.4
A place where people work to spread a religion or help others
10
6.5
To tell people the Christian message to make them believers
5
8.0
Spreading religious beliefs to try to convert people
1
9.7
Spreading a religion in new areas by sending people to start churches and schools
How Evangelistic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from combining 'missionary' (pertaining to religious outreach) with 'work' (activities or effort); together they denote the activities carried out by missionaries. This adjectival noun composition is a common, compositional pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Missionary work comes from the idea of a mission, a special religious 'task', and from people who travel to do that work in other places. That's why it means organized activities by missionaries to teach their faith and help communities.