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MINISTRY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The work of a minister of religion
Example:
he is studying for the ministry
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("ministry" is a kind of...):
employment; work (the occupation for which you are paid)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Building where the business of a government ministry is transacted
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("ministry" is a kind of...):
building; edifice (a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Religious ministers collectively (especially Presbyterian)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("ministry" is a kind of...):
priesthood (the body of ordained religious practitioners)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A government department under the direction of a minister of state
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("ministry" is a kind of...):
government department (a department of government)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ministry"):
Foreign Office (the government department in charge of foreign relations)
Home Office (the government department in charge of domestic affairs)
Context examples:
It was a custom introduced by this prince and his ministry (very different, as I have been assured, from the practice of former times,) that after the court had decreed any cruel execution, either to gratify the monarch’s resentment, or the malice of a favourite, the emperor always made a speech to his whole council, expressing his great lenity and tenderness, as qualities known and confessed by all the world.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
