Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An advocate, especially the Holy Spirit.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French paraclit, from Late Latin paraclet, from Latin paracletus ("advocate, defender, helper, protector, conforter"), from Ancient Greek παράκλητος (paraklētos, "called to help, helper"), from παρά (para, "beside") + καλέω (kaleō, "I call")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word paraclete.

Examples

  • Strictly speaking the word paraclete means the defence counsel.

    Leaving satan behind Sam Norton 2006

  • Moreover, it is stated lower down of this same martyr, that he was 'called the paraclete (or advocate) of the Christians, having the Paraclete in himself, the Spirit more abundantly than Zacharias.'

    Essays on the work entitled "Supernatural Religion" Joseph Barber Lightfoot 1858

  • And it is very observable, that this very word paraclete, though it be not a

    The Works of Dr. John Tillotson, Late Archbishop of Canterbury. Vol. 08. 1630-1694 1820

  • P.S. For a definition of "paraclete" and lots of other New Testament vocabulary, click here.

    Philocrites: February 2004 Archives 2004

  • For a definition of "paraclete" and lots of other New Testament vocabulary, click here.

    Philocrites: Screenplay by the Paraclete? 2004

  • He grants to good and bad alike, but justification, sanctification, continued intercession, and peace, He grants to His children alone. advocate -- Greek, "paraclete," the same term as is applied to the Holy

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • One might imagine that Gnostic Aslan as a weaker paraclete, one whose abandonment of Narnia is only the necessary relocation of a limited force of light called away to battle evil on another front, a Phildickian saviour-in-hiding who “must invade reality in order to redeem it”.

    Thoughts on Narnia Hal Duncan 2009

  • One might imagine that Gnostic Aslan as a weaker paraclete, one whose abandonment of Narnia is only the necessary relocation of a limited force of light called away to battle evil on another front, a Phildickian saviour-in-hiding who “must invade reality in order to redeem it”.

    Archive 2009-01-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • After that came Eusebius of Cæsarea, who taught that the spirit paraclete is neither of Father nor Son.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • The result of Socrates 'losing his way in thought and ending up stymied in Agathon's neighbor's porch is that Aristodemus, like a proper Socratic paraclete, arrives at Agathon's quite a bit before Socrates.

    Plato on Friendship and Eros Reeve, C. D. C. 2007

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • I once thought only Catholics used this word.

    February 2, 2007

  • From the 1940’s through the 1960’s, bishops and superiors of religious orders sent their problem priests to Father Fitzgerald to be healed. He founded the Servants of the Paraclete in 1947 (“paraclete�? means “Holy Spirit�?), and set up a retreat house in Jemez Springs, N.M.

    The New York Times, Early Alarm for Church on Abusers in the Clergy, by Laurie Goodstein, April 2, 2009

    April 3, 2009

  • (paraclete) The prophet Mani around 150 AD around Iran/Iraq a gnostic Christian. The word not only as holy spirit, but a spirit twin (the Helper) on the parallel side of heaven.

    April 24, 2009

  • The Gnostic Society - Writings of Manichaean Writings

    (http://www.gnosis.org/library/manis.htm)

    April 24, 2009

  • Greek for 'defense attorney' in modern parlance

    April 24, 2009