archangel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A high-ranking angel.
2. n. The eighth of the nine orders of angels in medieval angelology.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An angel of the highest order; a chief angel. The word occurs in two passages of the Bible, 1 Thes. iv. 16, and Jude 9. Michael, mentioned in the latter as an archangel, also in Daniel as the spiritual prince of the Jews, and in Rev. xii. 7 as the leader of the heavenly hosts against the dragon and his angels, is the St. Michael of the church calendar. Coming after him in dignity, three others are especially known by name as archangels: Gabriel, the heavenly interpreter and annunciator or herald (Dan. viii. 16, ix. 21; Luke i. 19); Raphael, the guardian angel commemorated in the book of Tobit; and Uriel (2 Esd. iv. 1), the fire or light of God, often mentioned, like the others, in Milton's “Paradise Lost.” Three other names are added by tradition to make the number seven (Tobit xii. 15, Rev. viii. 2, where the angels mentioned are taken as archangels), Chamuel, Jophiel or Zophiel, and Zadkiel; and still others are spoken of.
2. n. A member of the lowest but one of the nine orders of angels composing the “celestial hierarchy” of Dionysius the pseudo-Areopagite, whose classification was adopted by Pope Gregory the Great, and is generally accepted by the theologians of the Roman Catholic Church. The nine orders are: seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominations, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, angels.
3. n. In botany: The name of several labiate plants, as Stachys sylvatica and species of Lamium.
4. n. An umbelliferous plant, Archangelica officinalis. See angelica.
5. n. A slim-bodied, thin-faced variety of domestic pigeon, of rather small size, with long head and beak, a peaked crest, and rich metallic lustrous plumage, black on the shoulders and tail, but coppery elsewhere. The origin of the breed is unknown: it was introduced into England from Ghent. The name is supposed to allude to the brilliancy of the plumage. The bird breeds very true, the chief points being the peaked crest and the luster.

Wiktionary

1. n. A powerful angel that leads many other angels, but is still loyal to a deity. (Judeo-Christian examples: Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Uriel).
2. n. In Christian angelology, an archangel is an angel from the third level or choir of angels, ranked above virtues and below powers.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A chief angel; one high in the celestial hierarchy.
2. n. (Bot.) A term applied to several different species of plants (Angelica archangelica, Lamium album, etc.).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a biennial cultivated herb; its stems are candied and eaten and its roots are used medicinally
2. n. an angel ranked above the highest rank in the celestial hierarchy