Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| monolingual | A person or group knowing or speaking only their own language. |
| monolinguals | Persons speaking or understanding only one language, namely their mother tongue. |
| Monophysites | Pejorative term for Oriental Orthodox (qv). |
| monoreligion | An ethnoreligion restricted in membership to one culture or people. |
| monotheist | One who believes in monotheism, the doctrine or belief that there exists only one God. |
| monovocational | In contrast to bivocational persons, monovocational persons describes missionaries whose main or only vocation and profession is full-time Christian service with particular emphasis on the ministry of evangelization and evangelism that results in churches. |
| monsignor, monseigneur | (mgr, msgr). A title of honor for a non-episcopal prelate of the Catholic Church. |
| monthly attenders | Affiliated Christians (church members) who attend church services of public worship on average once a month. |
| monthly letters | The total regular monthly flow of listeners’ letters received by a radio or TV station or program. |
| monthly radio audience | The average regular audience each month for a Christian radio or TV station or program. |
| Moravians | A Protestant tradition, also known as Unitas Fratrum (Unity of the Brethren), or Continental Pietists. |
| moribund microreligion | A very small organized local religion, rapidly declining, with under 100 adherents. |
| Mormons | Followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and its over 90 schismatic bodies. |
| mosque | (Arabic, masjid). A Muslim place of public religious worship. |
| mother | A rank or office in numerous Non-White indigenous churches. |
| mother church | Ecclesiastically (not theologically), a large central church (particularly in South American Protestantism) with a number of derived daughter churches. |
| mother house, motherhouse | The original monastery or convent of a religious community or the one where the superior general or provincial lives. |
| mother superior | A nun who is the head of a religious house. |
| mother tongue | The first language spoken in an individual’s home in his early or earliest childhood; one’s first language or native language. |
| mother tongue | Main language of a person’s home or childhood; the first language spoken in an individual’s home in his early or earliest childhood; one’s first language or native language. |
| motu propio | (Latin: by one’s own impulse). Arescript initiated and issued by the Catholic pope of his own accord and apart from the advice of others. |
| Movements | A cover term for groups within Christianity that overlap the major traditions (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and Independent) and are therefore counted separately. The largest are the Evangelical and the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements. |
| Mozarabs | Spanish Christians living under Arab rule in Spain. AD 711-1100. |
| Mulatto | The issue of a White and a Black (Negro). |
| mullah | Among Persians, Pakistanis and North Indians, a Muslim religious practitioner or cleric. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.