Mor·mon prop. n. Eccl. One of a Christian denomination (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) in the United States, followers of Joseph Smith, who professed to have found an addition to the Bible, engraved on golden plates, called the Book of Mormon, first published in 1830. The Mormons believe in polygamy, and their hierarchy of apostles, etc., has control of civil and religious matters.
Note: ☞ The Mormons call their religious organization The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its head claims to receive revelations of God's will, and to have certain supernatural powers. The church headquarters are in Salt Lake City, Utah. They form a substantial fraction of the population of Utah, and at the end of the 20th centrury their numbers were increasing due to active proselytization.
Book of Mormon
n : revealed to Joseph Smith in 1830 by an ancient prophet
Mormon; supposedly a record of ancient peoples of America
translated by Joseph Smith [syn: The Book of Mormon]