Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The Messiah, as foretold by the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures. Often used with the.
  • Jesus as considered in Christianity to be the Messiah.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The Anointed: a title of Jesus of Nazareth, synonymous with, and the Greek translation of, Messiah, originally used with the definite article strictly as a title, the Christ (that is, the Anointed), but from an early period used without the article as a part of the proper name Jesus Christ. See anointed.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The Anointed; an appellation given to Jesus, the Savior. It is synonymous with the Hebrew Messiah.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun Judaism The anointed one or messiah predicted in Jewish prophecy.
  • proper noun Christianity A title given to Jesus of Nazareth, seen as the fulfiller of the messianic prophecy; often treated as a personal name.
  • noun art A figure or other artistic depiction of Jesus Christ.
  • interjection An expletive.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any expected deliverer
  • noun a teacher and prophet born in Bethlehem and active in Nazareth; his life and sermons form the basis for Christianity (circa 4 BC - AD 29)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English Crist, from Old English Crīst, from Latin Chrīstus, from Greek Khrīstos, from khrīstos, anointed, verbal adj. of khrīein, to anoint; see ghrēi- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English Crist, from Latin Christus, from Ancient Greek Χριστός (Khristós), proper noun use of χριστός (khristós, "the anointed one"), calqued after Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (māšīaḥ, "anointed") (whence English messiah).

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