# mission

Pronunciation: say "MISH-uhn" US /ˈmɪʃən/, UK /ˈmɪʃn̩/

## Noun

1. A set of tasks undertaken to fulfill a purpose or duty, whether assigned by an employer or set for oneself.
   - Simple: A task or set of tasks you take on to reach an important goal.
   - _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._
2. A purpose someone feels deeply driven to follow, or the central aim an organization is set up to serve.
   - Simple: An important goal that a person feels they must work for, or that a group is set up to reach.
   - _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._
3. A planned operation undertaken to reach a set objective, especially a military action or the flight of an aircraft or spacecraft.
   - Simple: A planned job with a clear goal, often done by soldiers, pilots, or a spaceship.
   - _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._
4. A group of people appointed to perform a service; a delegation or diplomatic embassy.
   - Simple: A group of people sent somewhere to carry out a job for a government or organization.
   - _The diplomatic mission negotiated a ceasefire between the two nations._
   - _Her government sent a fact-finding mission to assess the damage firsthand._
5. A settlement or building that serves as a base for missionary activity.
   - Simple: A building or settlement used as a base for work to spread a religion.
   - _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._
6. A journey or expedition undertaken to spread a religious faith.
   - Simple: A trip made to spread a religion, often in faraway places.
   - _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._
9. A city charity, often church-run, that offers meals, beds, and other help to homeless and needy people. *(US)*
   - Simple: A city charity, often run by a church, that gives food, beds, and other help to homeless or poor people.
   - _On the coldest nights the downtown mission sets up extra cots in its dining hall._
   - _Volunteers at the rescue mission served more than three hundred Thanksgiving dinners._
7. Charitable organizations working in developing countries, especially those that preach their faith as well as provide aid.
   - Simple: Charities that help people in poorer countries, especially ones that also teach their religion.
   - _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._
12. A series of special services and sermons held in a parish over several days, usually led by visiting preachers, to renew the faith of those who attend.
   - Simple: A few days of special church services and talks, often led by visiting preachers, to make people's faith stronger.
   - _The Lenten mission drew worshippers from every parish in the diocese._
   - _During the mission, a visiting preacher led services each evening for a week._
13. In Australia, a settlement chiefly inhabited by Indigenous Australians, often living in government-provided housing. *(Australia)*
   - Simple: In Australia, a settlement where most residents are Indigenous Australians, often living in government housing.
   - _After years of working in Sydney, she moved back to the mission in northern New South Wales, where most of her Aboriginal relatives still live._
   - _Housing on the mission is run by the state, and nearly all of the three hundred people who live there are Aboriginal Australians._
8. A job or journey that is tiring or awkward, or that demands much more effort than it ought to. *(colloquial, UK)*
   - Simple: A job or trip that is tiring or tricky, or that needs far more effort than it should.
   - _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._

## Verb

10. To send a person or group out on an assigned task or expedition.
   - Simple: To send a person or group somewhere to carry out a task.
   - _If the storm clears, brigade headquarters plans to mission the engineer company to reopen the mountain road by Friday._
   - _The agency missioned its best operatives to recover the stolen documents._
11. To carry out missionary work; to preach and seek religious converts.
   - Simple: To teach people about a religion and try to persuade them to follow it.
   - _The order missioned throughout the region, founding chapels as they went._
   - _The friars had come to mission among the peoples of the river valley, and they spent their first winter learning the local language._

## Noun

14. The act of dismissing someone from service; discharge from a post or duty. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The act of dismissing someone or letting them go from a job or service.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A trip made to buy, sell, or deliver illegal drugs.

## Origin

English borrowed it in learned use from Latin missiō, missiōnem, a word for a sending, dispatching, discharging, release, or cessation.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/mission (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).