Word.ws English Dictionary

nihil obstat

/ˈnɪhɪl ˈɒbstæt/

nihil obstat noun: a declaration of no objection; (specifically) a declaration used by the Catholic Church to indicate a book, initiative, or appointment to an office has been found to not breach religious or moral norms.

Noun

nihil obstat (plural nihil obstats)

  1. A declaration of no objection; (specifically) a declaration used by the Catholic Church to indicate a book, initiative, or appointment to an office has been found to not breach religious or moral norms.
    • This ingenious plan expressed in a booklet by the Italian Roman Catholic priest had received three Nihil Obstats and two Imprimaturs from his bishop.1943, Elisabeth Achelis, The Calendar for Everybody, New York: G. P. Putnam's sons, page 53

Forms of nihil obstat

pluralnihil obstats

Origin of nihil obstat

Borrowed from Latin nihil obstat, from nihil (“nothing”) + obstat (“hinders”).

Questions about nihil obstat

What does nihil obstat mean?
Nihil obstat means a declaration of no objection; (specifically) a declaration used by the Catholic Church to indicate a book, initiative, or appointment to an office has been found to not breach religious or moral norms.
What part of speech is nihil obstat?
Nihil obstat is a noun.
How do you pronounce nihil obstat?
Nihil obstat is pronounced /ˈnɪhɪl ˈɒbstæt/.
What is the plural of nihil obstat?
The plural of nihil obstat is nihil obstats.

Words near nihil obstat in the dictionary

  1. nihil
  2. nihil album
  3. nihil debet
  4. nihil dicit
  5. nihil dicits
  6. nihil obstat
  7. nihil obstats
  8. nihilartikel
  9. nihilartikels
  10. nihilate
  11. nihilated

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nihil obstat (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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