mission

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A body of persons sent to conduct negotiations or establish relations with a foreign country.
2. n. The business with which such a body of persons is charged.
3. n. A permanent diplomatic office abroad.
4. n. A body of experts or dignitaries sent to a foreign country.
5. n. A body of persons sent to a foreign land by a religious organization, especially a Christian organization, to spread its faith or provide educational, medical, and other assistance.
6. n. A mission established abroad.
7. n. The district assigned to a mission worker.
8. n. A building or compound housing a mission.
9. n. An organization for carrying on missionary work in a territory.
10. n. Missionary duty or work.
11. n. A Christian church or congregation with no cleric of its own that depends for support on a larger religious organization.
12. n. A series of special Christian services for purposes of proselytizing.
13. n. A welfare or educational organization established for the needy people of a district.
14. n. A special assignment given to a person or group: an agent on a secret mission.
15. n. A combat operation assigned to a person or military unit.
16. n. An aerospace operation intended to carry out specific program objectives: a mission to Mars.
17. n. An inner calling to pursue an activity or perform a service; a vocation.
18. v. To send on a mission.
19. v. To organize or establish a religious mission among or in.
20. adj. Of or relating to a mission.
21. adj. Of or relating to a style of architecture or furniture used in the early Spanish missions of California.
22. adj. Of, relating to, or having the distinctive qualities of an early 20th-century style of plain, heavy, dark-stained wood furniture.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A sending of an agent or a messenger; a charge given to go and perform some service; delegation for a specific duty or purpose: as, to be sent on a mission to a foreign government, or to the heathen.
2. n. That for which one is sent or commissioned; the power conferred or duty imposed on an envoy or messenger; a delegated business or function; an errand.
3. n. Hence That for which a person or thing is destined or designed; predestined function; determinate purpose or object.
4. n. An organized effort for the spread of religion, or for the enlightenment and elevation of some community or region; organized missionary effort; religious propagaudism: as, Christian missions; the home and foreign missions of the Presbyterian Church; domestic missions; the city mission.
5. n. In the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, a series of special religious services organized to quicken the piety of Christians and convert the impenitent. The person appointed to conduct such a mission is termed a missioner.
6. n. A particular field of missionary activity; a missionary post or station, or the body of missionaries established there; a center of organized missionary effort or of religious propagandism; specifically, in the Roman Catholic Church, the district assigned to a missionary priest.
7. n. The office or establishment of a foreign envoy; the charge or post of an ambassador; a foreign legation: as, the mission to Persia; the members of the British mission at Washington.
8. n. Dismission; discharge from service.
9. n. Synonyms Office, duty, charge, embassy.
10. To send on a mission; commission.

Wiktionary

1. n. countable A set of tasks that fulfills a purpose or duty; an assignment set by an employer.
2. n. uncountable Religious evangelism.
3. n. uncountable (the missions) collective term for third world charities, particularly those which preach as well as provide aid.
4. n. countable (Catholic tradition) an infrequent gathering of religious believers in a parish, usually part of a larger regional event with a central theme.
5. v. transitive To send to a mission.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of sending, or the state of being sent; a being sent or delegated by authority, with certain powers for transacting business; comission.
2. n. That with which a messenger or agent is charged; an errand; business or duty on which one is sent; a commission.
3. n. Persons sent; any number of persons appointed to perform any service; a delegation; an embassy.
4. n. An assotiation or organization of missionaries; a station or residence of missionaries.
5. n. An organization for worship and work, dependent on one or more churches.
6. n. A course of extraordinary sermons and services at a particular place and time for the special purpose of quickening the faith and zeal participants, and of converting unbelievers.
7. n. obsolete Dismission; discharge from service.
8. v. Mostly used in the form of the past participle. To send on a mission.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an organization of missionaries in a foreign land sent to carry on religious work
2. n. a special assignment that is given to a person or group
3. n. the organized work of a religious missionary
4. n. a group of representatives or delegates
5. n. an operation that is assigned by a higher headquarters