(from disco, I learn), a scholar or follower of any teacher or philosopher. The followers of Jesus Christ in general were so called; but in a more restricted sense, the term was used to denote those alone who were the immediate followers and attendants on his person, of which there were seventy or seventy-two. The terms disciple and apostle are often used synonymously in the Gospel history; but the apostles, as distinguished from disciples, were the twelve selected to be the principal ministers of the Christian religion. The Latins kept the festival of the seventy or seventy-two disciples on the 15th July, and the Greeks on the 4th January.