Definitions

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

  • noun The crier who calls the faithful to prayer five times a day.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Mohammedan countries, a crier who proclaims from the minaret of a mosque (when the mosque has one, otherwise from the side of the mosque) the regular hours of prayer. These hours are dawn, noon, four o'clock in the afternoon, sunset, and nightfall.

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

  • noun A Mohammedan crier of the hour of prayer; the Moslem official of a mosque who summons the faithful to prayer from a minaret five times a day.

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

  • noun Islam The person who issues the call to prayer from one of the minarets of a mosque.

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

  • noun the Muslim official of a mosque who summons the faithful to prayer from a minaret five times a day

Etymologies

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

[Ottoman Turkish müezzin or Persian muazzin, from Arabic mu’aḏḏin, active participle of ’aḏḏana, to call to prayer; see azan.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Turkish müezzin or Ottoman Turkish مؤذن (müezzin), from Arabic مؤذن (muʾáḏḏin, "one who calls (to prayer), crier").

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Examples

  • Mr. Finkelstein rughtly points out that the Islamification of Britain vis-a-vis the call of the muezzin is yet another brick in the creation of a non-Christian state.

    Oxford Must Reject Islamic Call To Prayer – Update « Unambiguously Ambidextrous 2008

  • Good Mohammedans pray five times every day, and there is a church officer called a muezzin (mu-ez'-zin), who gives them notice of the hour for prayer.

    Famous Men of the Middle Ages Addison B. Poland 1885

  • Ms Michaeli's so-called muezzin Bill would actually ban the use of such loudspeakers in any place of worship, but is clearly directed at mosques used by Israel's mainly Muslim million-plus Arab minority.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2011

  • With pride, Kaseem would read the translation of the call, which had been read by millions around the world: Before any prayer session, a man called the muezzin climbs to the top of the mosque’s minaret and sings God is great four times, followed by I testify there is no other God but God twice.

    Blowback Brad Thor 2005

  • With pride, Kaseem would read the translation of the call, which had been read by millions around the world: Before any prayer session, a man called the muezzin climbs to the top of the mosque’s minaret and sings God is great four times, followed by I testify there is no other God but God twice.

    Blowback Brad Thor 2005

  •  At one time the blind men of the city were employed to call the muezzin from the minarets, lest strange male eyes perceived an unveiled woman such are the wonders of modern science that nowadays the minaret towers are fitted with loudspeakers which do the job far more effectively, and our poor, supported by the State, despise such modest work. "

    Falcon's Prey Jordan, Penny 1997

  • The '' 'muezzin' '' in [[Islam]] is a person who leads the call for five daily prayers

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • It was Umar al-Khattab, who was to be the second caliph after the Prophet's death, who suggested that a person call the others to prayer, to which the Prophet instructed a black Muslim youth, Bilal, to make the call to prayer (hence the name Bilal in some languages becoming synonym to the word 'muezzin').

    politics101malaysia 2008

  • "He says the Islamic" muezzin "cry should be ­allowed to ring out just like Christian church bells.

    UP Pompeii Gandalf 2010

  • He heard someone speaking Arabic in a familiar cadence; in the distance, a muezzin was calling the dawn prayer.

    The Longest War Peter L. Bergen 2011

Comments

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  • "I asked the muezzin what he thought of the Iraq war."

    Kevin Paraino, "Destination Martyrdom," Newsweek (April 28, 2008), 27

    April 24, 2008

  • The muezzin was a-standing on the radiator grille.

    December 7, 2009