A high-ranking Shiite religious leader who is regarded as an authority on religious law and its interpretation and who has political power as well.

Roget 996: clergy, clericals, ministry, priesthood, presbytery, the cloth, the desk.    clergyman, divine, ecclesiastic, churchman, priest, presbyter, hierophant^†, pastor, shepherd, minister; father, father in Christ; padre, abbe, cure; patriarch; reverend; black coat; confessor.    dignitaries of the church; ecclesiarch^†, hierarch^†; ebdomarius [Lat.]; eminence, reverence, elder, primate, metropolitan, archbishop, bishop, prelate, diocesan, suffragan^†, dean, subdean^†, archdeacon, prebendary, canon, rural dean, rector, parson, vicar, perpetual curate, residentiary^†, beneficiary, incumbent, chaplain, curate; deacon, deaconess; preacher, reader, lecturer; capitular^†; missionary, propagandist, Jesuit, revivalist, field preacher.    churchwarden, sidesman^†; clerk, precentor^†, choir; almoner, suisse [Fr.], verger, beadle, sexton, sacristan; acolyth^†, acolothyst^†, acolyte, altar boy; chorister.    [Roman Catholic priesthood] Pope, Papa, pontiff, high priest, cardinal; ancient flamen^†, flamen^†; confessor, penitentiary; spiritual director.    cenobite, conventual, abbot, prior, monk, friar, lay brother, beadsman^†, mendicant, pilgrim, palmer; canon regular, canon secular; Franciscan, Friars minor, Minorites; Observant, Capuchin, Dominican, Carmelite; Augustinian^†; Gilbertine; Austin Friars^†, Black Friars, White Friars, Gray Friars, Crossed Friars, Crutched Friars; Bonhomme [Fr.], Carthusian, Benedictine^†, Cistercian, Trappist, Cluniac, Premonstatensian, Maturine; Templar, Hospitaler; Bernardine^†, Lorettine, pillarist^†, stylite^†.    abbess, prioress, canoness^†; religieuse [Fr.], nun, novice, postulant.    [Under the Jewish dispensation] prophet, priest, high priest, Levite; Rabbi, Rabbin, Rebbe; scribe.    [Mohammedan etc.] mullah, muezzin, ayatollah; ulema, imaum^†, imam, sheik; sufi; kahin^†, kassis^†; mufti, hadji, dervish; fakir, faquir^†; brahmin^†, guru, kaziaskier^†, poonghie^†, sanyasi^†; druid, bonze^†, santon^†, abdal^†, Lama, talapoin^†, caloyer^†.    ... show more

Dutch: ayatollah