archbishop
- 01 C1 Advanced
a senior priest of high rank who is in charge of a large area in churches like the Catholic or Anglican church.
a senior bishop who governs an archdiocese and typically presides over a province of several dioceses.
Simple“The archbishop led the special service at the cathedral on Easter Sunday.”
In context“The archbishop issued a formal statement addressing the ethical concerns raised by the new legislation, speaking on behalf of the entire province.”
UsageCapitalised as a title before a name, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Teacher's tipWhile 'bishop' is B1/B2 level, 'archbishop' is rarer and usually appears in news or historical contexts.
Synonymsprelatemetropolitan
“The safeguards within this bill are not enough to support them." The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Archbishop Richard Moth, called the proposal "wrong in principle" and "deeply flawed".”
“The Archbishop of Canterbury said she was "sad and shocked" to hear about the fatal incident.”
From Middle English erchebischop, archebischop, from Old English arċebisċop (“archbishop”), from Late Latin or Ecclesiastical Latin archiepiscopus, from Ancient Greek ἀρχιεπίσκοπος (arkhiepískopos), from ἀρχι- (arkhi-, “first, chief”) + ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “overseer”), from ἐπισκοπέω (episkopéō, “to watch over”), from ἐπί (epí, “over”) + σκοπέω (skopéō, “to examine”), equivalent to arch- + bishop.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.