communicant

• IPA^(key): /kəˈmjuːnɪkənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

communicant (plural communicants)

1. (Christianity) A person who receives (or is allowed to receive) the elements (i.e., bread and wine) of the sacrament of Holy Communion. (Compare also these terms: communion, Communion, Lord's Supper, Mass, Eucharist, Divine Liturgy.)
   • 1706 August 30, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Bennett

     a never-failing monthly communicant

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     Meanwhile, the lass grew up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I have heard Dr. Chrystal say that he never had a communicant more full of the things of the Spirit.

   • 1986 December 14, Don Hill, “For Gay and Lesbian Catholics, Perseverance Means Carving Their Own Niche”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 22, page 8:

     The folded hands and submissive posture of the orderly line of communicants.

2. One who communicates.
   • 1974, John Boorman, Zardoz, London: Pan Books, page 94:

     Each was a messenger and communicant with a special branch of knowledge.

   • 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC:

     partakers communicant with the bodie of Christ

   • 2013, Al Cooper, Sex and the Internet: A Guide Book for Clinicians, page 215:

     These cyberforums are asynchronous; that is, contributors post (i.e., publish a text message) without the need for fellow communicants to be online at the same time.

communicant (not comparable)

1. Communicating.
   • c. 1828, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Notes on Field on the Church:

     The co-eternal Son of the living God, incarnate, tempted, crucified, resurgent, communicant of his spirit, ascendant, and obtaining for his church the descent of the Holy Ghost.

Borrowed from Latin cōmmunicāns.

• IPA^(key): /ˌkɔ.my.niˈkɑnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧mu‧ni‧cant
• Rhymes: -ɑnt

communicant m (plural communicanten, diminutive communicantje n)

1. (Christianity, chiefly Roman Catholicism) a communicant, one receiving Holy Communion

   Synonym: communieganger

• → Indonesian: komunikan

• Audio:

  (file)

communicant (feminine communicante, masculine plural communicants, feminine plural communicantes)

1. communicating

   vases communicants (communicating vessels)

• “communicant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

commūnicant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of commūnicō