dis·ci·ple

(dĭ-sī′pəl)

a. One who embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of another.

b. An active adherent, as of a movement or philosophy.

2. often Disciple One of the original followers of Jesus.

3. Disciple A member of the Disciples of Christ.

[Middle English, from Old English discipul and from Old French desciple, both from Latin discipulus, pupil, from discere, to learn; see dek- in Indo-European roots.]

dis·ci′ple·ship′ n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

disciple

(dɪˈsaɪpəl)

1. (Philosophy) a follower of the doctrines of a teacher or a school of thought

2. (Bible) one of the personal followers of Christ (including his 12 apostles) during his earthly life

[Old English discipul, from Latin discipulus pupil, from discere to learn]

disˈcipleˌship n

discipular adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

dis•ci•ple

(dɪˈsaɪ pəl)

n.

1. any professed follower of Christ in His lifetime, esp. one of the 12 apostles.

2. (cap.) a member of the Disciples of Christ.

3. a pupil or an adherent of another; follower: a disciple of Freud.

[before 900; Middle English deciple (< Anglo-French de(s)ciple), Old English discipul < Latin discipulus=dis- dis-¹ + -cip(ere), comb. form of capere to take + -ulus -ule]

dis•ci′ple•like`, adj.

dis•ci′ple•ship`, n.

disciple

, discipline - Disciple comes from a Latin word meaning "learner" and discipline comes from one meaning "instruction, knowledge."

See also related terms for instruction.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

disciple - someone who believes and helps to spread the doctrine of another

adherent

Zen Buddhist - an adherent of the doctrines of Zen Buddhism

Mahayanist - an adherent of Mahayana Buddhism

Hinayanist - an adherent of Hinayana Buddhism

Lamaist - (Buddhism) an adherent of Lamaism

Tantrist - an adherent of Tantrism

Jainist - a believer in Jainism

Shintoist - a believer in Shintoism

Rasta, Rastafarian - follower of Rastafarianism

Mithraist - adherent of Mithraism

Zoroastrian - follower of Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism

absolutist - one who advocates absolutism

amoralist - someone who adheres to the doctrine that ordinary moral distinctions are invalid

animist - one who accepts the doctrine of animism

antinomian - a follower of the doctrine of antinomianism

Apostle - (New Testament) one of the original 12 disciples chosen by Christ to preach his gospel

Aristotelean, Aristotelian, Peripatetic - a follower of Aristotle or an adherent of Aristotelianism

Bahai - a teacher of or believer in Bahaism

Tao, Taoist - an adherent of any branch of Taoism

clericalist - one who advocates clericalism

Donatist - an adherent of Donatism

Druse, Druze - an adherent of an esoteric monotheistic religious sect living in the relative security of the mountains of Syria and Lebanon who believes that Al-hakim was an incarnation of God; "a Druze is permitted to conform outwardly to the faith of the unbelievers among whom he lives"

dualist - an adherent of dualism

follower - a person who accepts the leadership of another

Hussite - an adherent of the religious reforms of John Huss

Ismaili, Ismailian - an adherent of Ismailism; a member of the Ismaili branch of Shiism

Lutheran - follower of Lutheranism

Mahdist - an adherent of Mahdism

Manichaean, Manichean, Manichee - an adherent of Manichaeism

Monophysite - an adherent of Monophysitism

Neoplatonist - an adherent of Neoplatonism

diabolist, Satanist - an adherent of Satan or Satanism

Sikh - an adherent of Sikhism

Socinian - an adherent of the teachings of Socinus; a Christian who rejects the divinity of Christ and the Trinity and original sin; influenced the development of Unitarian theology

totalitarian - an adherent of totalitarian principles or totalitarian government

Unitarian - adherent of Unitarianism

Trinitarian - adherent of Trinitarianism

Arminian - adherent of Arminianism

votary - a devoted (almost religiously so) adherent of a cause or person or activity; "the cultured votary of science"

disciple

noun

1. apostle, follower Jesus and his disciples

2. follower, student, supporter, pupil, convert, believer, partisan, devotee, apostle, adherent, proselyte, votary, catechumen a major intellectual figure with disciples throughout Europe
follower leader, teacher, master, guru, swami see the twelve apostles

The Twelve Disciples

Andrew, Bartholomew, James, John, Judas, Jude, Matthew, Peter, Philip, Simon, Thomas

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

disciple

noun

One who supports and adheres to another:

adherent, cohort, follower, henchman, minion, partisan, satellite, supporter.

Translations

تِلْميذ

učedník

discipeltilhænger

Schüler Schülerin Jünger

μαθητής

disciple

lærisveinn

discepolo più giovane seguace

māceklissekotājs

učenec

disciple

[dɪˈsaɪpl] N (Rel) → discípulo/a m/f (fig) → discípulo/a m/f, seguidor(a) m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

disciple

[dɪˈsaɪp^əl] n

(gen) (= follower) [person, philosophy, régime] → disciple m

(= apostle) [Jesus] → disciple m

disciple

n (lit) → Jünger m; (fig) → Schüler(in) m(f), → Jünger(in) m(f) (usu iro)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

disciple

[dɪˈsaɪpl] n (also) (fig) → discepolo/a

disciple

(diˈsaipl) noun

a person who believes in the teaching of another, especially one of the original followers of Christ. Jesus and his twelve disciples.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Yet some of the topics may have been actually used by Socrates; and the recollection of his very words may have rung in the ears of his disciple. The Apology of Plato may be compared generally with those speeches of Thucydides in which he has embodied his conception of the lofty character and policy of the great Pericles, and which at the same time furnish a commentary on the situation of affairs from the point of view of the historian.

View in context

Here was the wicked woman who accused the Master of impurity, all confounded; here was the teaching in the Deer-park; the miracle that stunned the fire-worshippers; here was the Bodhisat in royal state as a prince; the miraculous birth; the death at Kusinagara, where the weak disciple fainted; while there were almost countless repetitions of the meditation under the Bodhi tree; and the adoration of the alms-bowl was everywhere.

View in context

Would a man who wanted to make another a flute-player refuse to send him to those who profess to teach the art for money, and be plaguing other persons to give him instruction, who are not professed teachers and who never had a single disciple in that branch of knowledge which he wishes him to acquire--would not such conduct be the height of folly?

View in context

It was evidently the meeting of a teacher and a disciple.

View in context

Neither can we be absolutely certain that, Socrates himself taught the immortality of the soul, which is unknown to his disciple Glaucon in the Republic; nor is there any reason to suppose that he used myths or revelations of another world as a vehicle of instruction, or that he would have banished poetry or have denounced the Greek mythology.

View in context

I little expected, in this enlightened and scientific age, to find a disciple of Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus.

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The disciples of the prophet had since redoubled their efforts, and resisted, by words at least, the authority of Congress.

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And this precept, my worthy disciples, if you read with due attention, you will, I hope, find sufficiently enforced by examples in the following pages.

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When Zarathustra once told this to his disciples they asked him: "And what, O Zarathustra, is the moral of thy story?" And Zarathustra answered them thus:

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It is battered and scarred in every direction, and stained and discolored by time, and Napoleon's horses kicked the legs off most the disciples when they (the horses, not the disciples,) were stabled there more than half a century ago.

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So strongly did he work upon his disciples among the crew, that at last in a body they went to the captain and told him if Gabriel was sent from the ship, not a man of them would remain.

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He knew now quite positively that there had been no painting of landscape before Monet; and he felt a real thrill when he stood in front of Rembrandt's Disciples at Emmaus or Velasquez' Lady with the Flea-bitten Nose.

View in context