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prophet

Pronunciation: /ˈprɒfɪt/
Translate prophet | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of prophet

noun

  • 1a person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God:the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah
  • (the Prophet) (among Muslims) Muhammad.
  • a person who advocates or speaks in a visionary way about a new cause or theory:he is repeatedly hailed as a prophet of modernism
  • a person who predicts what will happen in the future:the prime minister ignored the prophets of doom
  • 2 (the Prophets) (in Christian use) the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve minor prophets.
  • (in Jewish use) one of the three canonical divisions of the Hebrew Bible, distinguished from the Law and the Hagiographa, and comprising the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the twelve minor prophets.

Phrases

a prophet is not without honour save in his own country

proverb a person’s gifts and talents are rarely appreciated by those close to them.
[with biblical allusion to Matt. 13:57]

Derivatives

prophethood

noun

prophetism

noun

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French prophete, via Latin from Greek prophētēs 'spokesman', from pro 'before' + phētēs 'speaker' (from phēnai 'speak')

prophet in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of prophet in the US English dictionary