/suf"reuh geuhn/ , adj.
1. assisting or auxiliary to, as applied to any bishop in relation to the archbishop or metropolitan who is his superior, or as applied to an assistant or subsidiary bishop who performs episcopal functions in a diocese but has no ordinary jurisdiction, as, in the Church of England, a bishop consecrated to assist the ordinary bishop of a see in part of his diocese.
2. (of a see or diocese) subordinate to an archiepiscopal or metropolitan see.
n.
3. a suffragan bishop.
[ 1350-1400; ME suffragane suffraganeus voting, equiv. to suffrag ( ium ) SUFFRAGE + -aneus, composite adj. suffix, equiv. to -an ( us ) -AN + -eus -EOUS ]