Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - mission

(missions) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. A mission is an important task that people are given to do, especially one that involves travelling to another country. Salisbury sent him on a diplomatic mission to North America... ...the most crucial stage of his latest peace mission. N-COUNT: usu with supp 2. A mission is a group of people who have been sent to a foreign country to carry out an official task. ...a senior member of a diplomatic mission. = delegation N-COUNT: usu with supp 3. A mission is a special journey made by a military aeroplane or space rocket. ...a bomber that crashed during a training mission in the west Texas mountains. ...the first shuttle mission. N-COUNT: usu supp N 4. If you say that you have a mission, you mean that you have a strong commitment and sense of duty to do or achieve something. He viewed his mission in life as protecting the weak from the evil... = vocation N-SING: usu poss N, also n of N 5. A mission is the activities of a group of Christians who have been sent to a place to teach people about Christianity. They say God spoke to them and told them to go on a mission to the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. N-COUNT