Word.ws English Dictionary

decretals

decretals is the plural of decretal.

Meaning of decretal

Noun

decretal (plural decretals)

  1. A papal decree, particularly one derived from an ecclesiastical letter.
    • Or els is thys Goddis law,
      Decrees or decretals,
      Or holy sinodals,
      Or els provincyals,
      Thus within the wals
      Of holy church to deale[…]?c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 65, lines 130–135
  2. (archaic) Any decree or pronounced instruction.
    • […] picturals / Of Magistrates, of courts, of tribunals, / Of commen wealthes, of states, of pollicy, / Of lawes, of iudgements, and of decretals […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

See all 3 meanings of decretal

Questions about decretals

What is decretals the plural of?
Decretals is the plural of decretal.

Words near decretals in the dictionary

  1. Decrescenzos
  2. decretal
  3. decretalism
  4. decretalist
  5. decretalists
  6. decretals
  7. decretion
  8. decretions
  9. decretist
  10. decretists
  11. decretive

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: decretals (page history and authors); decretal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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