as in priest
a person specially trained and authorized to conduct religious services in a Christian church
clerics were sharply divided on the issue of whether the war was morally justified
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Recent Examples of cleric
Demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans calling for the downfall of the ruling clerics and demanding the leadership step aside.
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Greg Wehner, FOXNews.com, 30 Dec. 2025
While the underlying reasons for the protests are economic, video geolocated by NBC News that circulated online Sunday showed crowds chanting against the country’s ruling clerics.
—Babak Dehghanpisheh, NBC news, 30 Dec. 2025
Shiite clerics, Baluch fishermen, and Tehrani teenagers have all spent hours listening to Googoosh.
—Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 10 Dec. 2025
Leading up to it, mass anti-government demonstrations against the Shah drew different factions seeking change— including leftists, students, clerics, nationalists and minorities, among others.
—Mandy Taheri, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cleric
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cleric
Noun
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Post, a lawyer, said other professions, such as attorneys and psychologists, have confidentiality rules like those of priests and pastors, but there is a difference between them.—
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In response, the provincial governor, Juan de Oñate, consulted with Franciscan priests and then ordered a counterattack.—
Noun
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The series includes the participation of Rusty Yates, Andrea’s former husband, as well as former followers of preacher Michael Woroniecki.—
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They were covered in the press as the hipster ministers, the preachers in sneakers, the hypepriests.—
Cite this Entry
“Cleric.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cleric. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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