ekklesiast

E1K5K5L1E1S1I1A1S1T1

A form of ecclesiast — A member of the Athenian ecclesia (public legislative assembly).

Scrabble 18

Meanings

nounekklesiast (plural ekklesiasts)

plural ekklesiasts

  1. alternativeAlternative spelling of ecclesiast.

    [O]ur competitors are as weak as ourselves. We save the Thebans, and they save us. It would be worth the while of either to provide pay for the ekklesiasts of the other.

    1876, Isokrates, translated by R[ichard] C[laverhouse] Jebb, “On the Peace [Or. viii.]”, in The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeos, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, chapter XVI (Isokrates.—Works.), section II (On the Internal Affairs of Greece), page 187
    2 more examples

    Aristotle indicates that ekklesiasts (members of the popular assembly) and legislators are not the same people when he says that “the decision of the legislator is prospective and universal rather than partial, while the ekklesiast and the dikast [lay judge in popular courts] decide about what is immediately present and definite” (Rhet I.1.1354b5-8).

    1997, Paul Bullen, “Lawmakers and Ordinary People in Aristotle”, in Leslie G. Rubin, editor, Justice v. Law in Greek Political Thought (Politikos; 3), Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 239

    The ekklesia clearly was not meeting according to the festival calendar, for any allotted meetings could not have been used up by the third of Mounichion. Ekklesiasts drew pay for attendance; so there must have been a budget which could easily have been exhausted by the meetings in Elaphebolion.

    2001, W[illiam] Kendrick Pritchett, “The Athenian Prytany Calendar and Ekklesias”, in Athenian Calendars and Ekklesias (Αρχαία Ελλάς […]; 8), Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben, →ISBN, page 194

Origin

  1. Ancient Greekἐκκλησιαστής
  2. Englishekklesiast

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐκκλησιαστής (ekklēsiastḗs). By surface analysis, ekklesia + -ast.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

ekklesiast. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ekklesiast

MLA

“ekklesiast.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ekklesiast. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ekklesiast,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ekklesiast.

Source: ekklesiast on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.