Definition of "suffragan" [suf•fra•gan]

• A bishop elected or appointed as an assistant to the bishop or ordinary of a diocese, having administrative and episcopal responsibilities but no jurisdictional functions. (noun)
• A bishop regarded in position as subordinate to an archbishop or a metropolitan. (noun)
• Of, being, or relating to a suffragan. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The bishops in the province are called suffragan bishops, because subject in some things to the authority of the archbishop, who is also called the metropolitan, because bishop of a metropolis or chief city of the province over which he presides."
• "Occasionally there have been two assistants of the vicar, to one of whom were committed all matters of jurisdiction, to the other the pontificalia and ordinations; the latter was known as suffragan of the vicar."
• "Finally, and this may help Mother Glasspool but I doubt it, she has been elected a bishop suffragan, which is basically an "assistant bishop," whereas Bishop Robinson was elected the bishop of his diocese."