evangelical

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Of, relating to, or in accordance with the Christian gospel, especially one of the four gospel books of the New Testament.
2. adj. Of, relating to, or being a Protestant church that founds its teaching on the gospel.
3. adj. Of, relating to, or being a Christian church believing in the sole authority and inerrancy of the Bible, in salvation only through regeneration, and in a spiritually transformed personal life.
4. adj. Of or relating to the Lutheran churches in Germany and Switzerland.
5. adj. Of or relating to all Protestant churches in Germany.
6. adj. Of or relating to the group in the Church of England that stresses personal conversion and salvation by faith.
7. adj. Characterized by ardent or crusading enthusiasm; zealous: an evangelical liberal.
8. n. A member of an evangelical church or party.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Of or pertaining to the gospel of Jesus Christ; comprised in or relating to the Christian revelation or dispensation: as, the evangelical books of the New Testament; the evangelical narrative or history; evangelical interpretation.
2. Conformable to the requirements or principles of the gospel, especially as these are set forth in the New Testament; characterized by or manifesting the spirit of Christ; consonant with the Christian faith: as, evangelical doctrine.
3. Adhering to and contending for the doctrines of the gospel: specifically applied to a section in the Protestant churches who profess to base their principles on Scripture alone, and who give distinctive prominence to such doctrines as the corruption of man's nature by the fall, atonement by the life, sufferings, and death of Christ, justification by faith in Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion and sanctification, and the divine exercise of free and unmerited grace.
4. In a restricted sense, relating or pertaining to the spirituality of the gospel; seeking to promote conversion and a strictly religious life: as, evangelical preaching or labors.
5. n. One who maintains evangelical principles. The name Evangelicals is specifically applied to that party in the Church of England, often designated the Low-church party, which insists on the acceptance and promulgation of distinctively evangelical doctrines. See I., 3, above.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Pertaining to the gospel(s) of the Christian New Testament
2. adj. Pertaining to the doctrines or teachings of the Christian gospel or Christianity in general.
3. adj. Protestant; specifically, designating European churches which were originally Lutheran rather than Calvinist.
4. adj. Pertaining to a movement in Protestant Christianity that stresses personal conversion and the authority of the Bible (evangelicalism).
5. adj. Zealously enthusiastic.
6. n. A member of an evangelical church
7. n. An advocate of evangelicalism

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Contained in, or relating to, the four Gospels.
2. adj. Belonging to, agreeable or consonant to, or contained in, the gospel, or the truth taught in the New Testament.
3. adj. Earnest for the truth taught in the gospel; strict in interpreting Christian doctrine; preëminently orthodox; -- technically applied to that party in the Church of England, and in the Protestant Episcopal Church, which holds the doctrine of “Justification by Faith alone;” the Low Church party. The term is also applied to other religious bodies not regarded as orthodox.
4. adj. Having or characterized by a zealous, crusading enthusiasm for a cause.
5. adj. Adhering to a form of Christianity characterized by a conservative interpretation of the bible, but disavowing the label 'bdfundamentalist`'b8.
6. n. One of evangelical principles.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. marked by ardent or zealous enthusiasm for a cause
2. adj. relating to or being a Christian church believing in personal conversion and the inerrancy of the Bible especially the 4 Gospels
3. adj. of or pertaining to or in keeping with the Christian gospel especially as in the first 4 books of the New Testament