Disciple

How to spell disciple

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce disciple

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does disciple mean?

1. nounA person who follows and helps to spread the teachings of a leader, teacher, or movement.

Disciple in a sentence

• Each disciple recorded the lessons in a private notebook.

• The famous chef trained one disciple for over a decade.

Where does disciple come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin discipulus, meaning a pupil or learner, which was built on the verb discere, 'to learn'. In its earliest English life it was borrowed directly from Latin into Old English as discipul, used in religious writing for the close followers of a teacher, and that meaning was later reinforced by the Old French form deciple. The strongest sense in English has always centred on someone who studies under a master and spreads the teaching, which is why it became the standard term for the followers of Jesus. The very same discere root sits inside the everyday word 'discipline', since both originally concerned learning and instruction. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the soft /s/ sound is written with the 'sc' of the original Latin, and the word ends in the quiet '-ple' rather than the '-pul' you might expect from hearing it.

How the word is built

• disci- (from Latin discere: to learn)
• -ple (from -pulus: pupil, learner)