ministry

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of serving; ministration.
2. n. One that serves as a means; an instrumentality.
3. n. The profession, duties, and services of a minister.
4. n. The Christian clergy.
5. n. The period of service of a minister.
6. n. A governmental department presided over by a minister.
7. n. The building in which such a department is housed.
8. n. The duties, functions, or term of a governmental minister.
9. n. Governmental ministers considered as a group.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of ministering; the rendering of service; ministration.
2. n. The state of ministering or serving; agency; instrumentality.
3. n. The office or function of a minister, civil or ecclesiastical; the state of being a minister, in any sense; the exercise of a ministerial office: as, to discharge one's ministry faithfully; to enter the ministry of the gospel; to be appointed to the ministry of war.
4. n. The general or a particular body of ministers of religion; the ministerial or clerical class; the clergy or priesthood. In episcopal churches the ministry consists of bishops, priests, and deacons, and of subdeacons and the minor orders, when such exist, in addition to these.
5. n. The body of ministers of state in a conntry; the heads of departments collectively; the executive administration: as, to form a ministry; the policy of the British ministry; the French ministry has resigned. In the United States the corresponding body is called the cabinet.
6. n. A ministerial department of government; the organization of functionaries administering a branch of public affairs; a minister and his subordinates collectively: as, the ministry of war or of justice.

Wiktionary

1. n. Government department, at the administrative level normally headed by a minister (or equivalent rank, e.g. secretary of state), who holds it as portfolio, especially in a constitutional monarchy
2. n. The complete body of government ministers (whether or not they are in cabinet) under the leadership of a head of government (such as a prime minister)
3. n. A ministration
4. n. The active practice and education of the minister of a particular religion or faith.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of ministering; ministration; service.
2. n. Agency; instrumentality.
3. n. The office, duties, or functions of a minister, servant, or agent; ecclesiastical, executive, or ambassadorial function or profession.
4. n. The body of ministers of state; also, the clergy, as a body.
5. n. Administration; rule; term in power.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. religious ministers collectively (especially Presbyterian)
2. n. the work of a minister of religion
3. n. a government department under the direction of a minister
4. n. building where the business of a government department is transacted