mission

Pluralmissions

Formsmissions, missioning, missioned

1. 1
   set of tasksnouncountable

   A set of tasks undertaken to fulfill a purpose or duty, whether assigned by an employer or set for oneself.

   The team's mission was to restore power to the flooded district within forty-eight hours.

   She set herself a personal mission to read fifty books before the year ended.

   UsageOften on a mission, and a mission to + verb: they were on a mission to restore power.

   Similartask, assignment, job

   Note

   At root a mission is something you are sent to do, which is why it sits so naturally with an employer or commander behind it. The self-set mission stretches that picture. Nobody sends you, yet the word keeps its air of a purpose handed down, and so it sounds weightier than task or job.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A purpose someone feels deeply driven to follow, or the central aim an organization is set up to serve.

   After her brother's illness, bringing clean water to rural villages became her mission in life.

   The foundation's mission is to end childhood hunger in the county within ten years.

   UsageFor an organization, usually the mission is to + verb; for a person, the set phrase is a mission in life.

   Similarpurpose, calling, vocation, aim, goal

   Note

   Someone with a mission acts as if sent: the word goes back to the Latin for a sending, and the feeling of being called echoes the missionary's errand.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A planned operation undertaken to reach a set objective, especially a military action or the flight of an aircraft or spacecraft.

   The squadron flew twelve combat missions over the mountains that winter.

   The space agency's next mission will land a small rover near the moon's south pole.

   UsageCommon pairings: fly a mission, a combat mission, and a mission to a place, as in a mission to Mars.

   Similaroperation, sortie, flight, expedition

4. 4
   delegationnouncountable

   A group of people appointed to perform a service; a delegation or diplomatic embassy.

   The diplomatic mission negotiated a ceasefire between the two nations.

   Her government sent a fact-finding mission to assess the damage firsthand.

   UsageUsually a mission to a country or body: a trade mission to Japan, a peace mission.

   Similardelegation, embassy, legation, deputation, commission

   Note

   Here the word names the people, not the task. Francis Bacon's New Atlantis imagines "a Mission of three of the Fellowes" of Salomon's House traveling aboard ship. That is a small working party, not a body of diplomats. The diplomatic use now dominates. A mission can be a temporary delegation, or a standing body representing one state in another, which is the formal sense in which an embassy is a mission.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A settlement or building that serves as a base for missionary activity.

   The mission housed a school, a clinic, and lodgings for the friars.

   Founded in 1769, the coastal mission became the heart of the new town.

   Note

   The mission as a place: the expedition settled into ground and walls. Many cities across the Americas grew from Spanish missions, which shows how much the word can hold. A church, a school, farmland and the people gathered around them can all count as a single mission, so the word names a whole settlement as readily as one building. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Many cities in the Americas developed from Spanish missions. video.will.illinois.edu
   • Mission complexes could include churches, classrooms, housing and agricultural land, supporting whole communities. nps.gov
6. 6
   church work abroadnouncountable

   A journey or expedition undertaken to spread a religious faith.

   The young couple spent two years on a mission in rural Peru.

   The young couple sailed for the Pacific islands on a two-year mission to preach and run a small church school.

   UsageUsually on a mission: two years on a mission in Peru. The person who goes is a missionary.

7. 7
   nounplural

   Charitable organizations working in developing countries, especially those that preach their faith as well as provide aid.

   The parish took up a second collection for the missions, whose clinics in East Africa also held Sunday services.

   Critics of the missions argue that food aid should never come bundled with a sermon.

   UsageUsually with the: give to the missions, work for the missions.

   Note

   The phrase gathers many charities into one collective idea with a religious tint, since the organizations it covers typically preach as well as feed or heal. In the singular, the word slips back toward the mission station or the missionary expedition.

8. 8
   nouncolloquialUKcountablebritish

   A job or journey that is tiring or awkward, or that demands much more effort than it ought to.

   Putting together that flat-pack wardrobe turned into a three-hour mission.

   The station is miles from the hotel, so getting there with all our luggage was a proper mission.

   Similarslog, ordeal, hassle, trek, chore

   Note

   Casual speech borrows the grand word for a small ordeal: assembling a wardrobe or hauling luggage to a station becomes a mission, as if it were an expedition. The usage is chiefly British and informal, at home in conversation more than in writing. It usually comes with an intensifier or a length, as in a proper mission or a three-hour mission. The joke leans on a military or space operation, the literal thing it exaggerates toward.

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