missionary
mis·sion·ary/ˈmɪʃ.əˌnɛɹ.ɪ/noun, adjective
missionary is spelled M-I-S-S-I-O-N-A-R-Y, 3 syllables: mis·sion·ary. The wrong spelling people search most is missonary: about 300 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 20 of all searches for the word. Missionary is a noun meaning “One who is sent on a mission”. The plural of missionary is missionaries.
How many letters and syllables are in missionary?
| Letters | 10: M-I-S-S-I-O-N-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: mis·sion·ary |
| In writing | 6.8 times per million words; the 9,165th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, missonary, about 300 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell missionary?
Missionary is spelled M-I-S-S-I-O-N-A-R-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 20 of the searches for missionary in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is missionary?
Missionary appears 6.8 times per million words in written English, the 9,165th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce missionary?
- US /ˈmɪʃ.əˌnɛɹ.ɪ/
- UK /ˈmɪʃ.ən(ə).ɹɪ/
Missionary has 3 syllables, split mis·sion·ary in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-missionary.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of missionary
- missionaries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does missionary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
One who is sent on a mission.
Near-synonym: emissary
- 2
A person who travels attempting to spread a religion or creed (Particularly used in context of Christianity).
A missionary was just trying to convert me to his religion.
- 3
derogatoryA religious messenger.
- 4
The missionary position for sexual intercourse.
My boyfriend only cums during missionary.
- 5
slangSexual intercourse in the missionary position.
adjective
- 1
Relating to a (religious) mission.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate missionary?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of missionary: mish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Missionary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | missionnaire |
| German | Missionar, Missionarin , missionarisch |
| Portuguese | missionário, missionária |
| Spanish | misionero, misionera, misionario |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does missionary come from?
From mission + -ary.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).