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mission

 [mish-uhn]   Origin

mis·sion

   [mish-uhn]
noun Also called foreign mission (for defs. 3, 6).
1.
a group or committee of persons sent to a foreign country to conduct negotiations, establish relations, provide scientific and technical assistance, or the like.
2.
the business with which such a group is charged.
3.
a permanent diplomatic establishment abroad; embassy; legation.
4.
Military. an operational task, usually assigned by a higher headquarters: a mission to bomb the bridge.
5.
Aerospace. an operation designed to carry out the goals of a specific program: a space mission.
EXPAND
6.
a group of persons sent by a church to carry on religious work, especially evangelization in foreign lands, and often to establish schools, hospitals, etc.
7.
an establishment of missionaries in a foreign land; a missionary church or station.
8.
a similar establishment in any region.
9.
the district assigned to a missionary.
10.
missionary duty or work.
11.
an organization for carrying on missionary work.
12.
Also called rescue mission. a shelter operated by a church or other organization offering food, lodging, and other assistance to needy persons.
13.
missions, organized missionary work or activities in any country or region.
14.
a church or a region dependent on a larger church or denomination.
15.
a series of special religious services for increasing religious devotion and converting unbelievers: to preach a mission.
16.
an assigned or self-imposed duty or task; calling; vocation.
17.
a sending or being sent for some duty or purpose.
18.
those sent.
COLLAPSE
Mission California www.ask.com/Mission+California Get Mission California Search for Mission California
Ad
adjective
19.
of or pertaining to a mission.
20.
(usually initial capital letter) noting or pertaining to a style of American furniture of the early 20th century, created in supposed imitation of the furnishings of the Spanish missions of California and characterized by the use of dark, stained wood, by heaviness, and by extreme plainness.

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Mission is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
Origin:
1590–1600; 1925–30 for def. 4; < Latin missiōn- (stem of missiō) a sending off, equivalent to miss(us) (past participle of mittere to send) + -iōn- -ion

Related forms
mis·sion·al, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged

Mis·sion

   [mish-uhn]
noun
a city in S Texas. 22,589.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To Mission
Collins
World English Dictionary
mission (ˈmɪʃən)
 
—n
1.  a specific task or duty assigned to a person or group of people: their mission was to irrigate the desert
2.  a person's vocation (often in the phrase mission in life)
3.  a group of persons representing or working for a particular country, business, etc, in a foreign country
4.  a.  a special embassy sent to a foreign country for a specific purpose
 b.  (US) a permanent legation
5.  a.  a group of people sent by a religious body, esp a Christian church, to a foreign country to do religious and social work
 b.  the campaign undertaken by such a group
6.  a.  the work or calling of a missionary
 b.  a building or group of buildings in which missionary work is performed
 c.  the area assigned to a particular missionary
7.  the dispatch of aircraft or spacecraft to achieve a particular task
8.  a church or chapel that has no incumbent of its own
9.  a charitable centre that offers shelter, aid, or advice to the destitute or underprivileged
10.  (modifier) of or relating to an ecclesiastical mission: a mission station
11.  (South African) a long and difficult process
12.  (US) (modifier) (of furniture) in the style of the early Spanish missions of the southwestern US
 
—vb
13.  (tr) to direct a mission to or establish a mission in (a given region)
 
[C16: from Latin missiō, from mittere to send]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

mission
1598, originally of Jesuits sending members abroad, from L. missionem (nom. missio) "act of sending," from mittere "to send," oldest form probably *smittere, of unknown origin. Diplomatic sense of "body of persons sent to a foreign land on commercial or political business" is from 1626. In Amer.Eng.,
EXPAND
sometimes "an embassy" (1805). Meaning "dispatch of an aircraft on a military operation" (1929, Amer.Eng.) later extended to spacecraft flights (1962), hence, mission control (1964). As a style of furniture, said to be imitative of furniture of original Sp. missions to N.America, it is attested from 1900.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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