Word.ws English Dictionary

osculatory

osculatory noun: a religious tablet, usually carrying a representation of Christ or the Virgin Mary, which is kissed by the priest during the Mass ("kiss of peace"); it is then passed to others at the mass who also kiss it.

Noun

osculatory (plural osculatories)

  1. A religious tablet, usually carrying a representation of Christ or the Virgin Mary, which is kissed by the priest during the Mass ("kiss of peace"); it is then passed to others at the mass who also kiss it.
    Synonyms:
    pax

Adjective

osculatory (comparative more osculatory, superlative most osculatory)

  1. (formal) Of or relating to kissing.
    • On this the two ladies went through the osculatory ceremony which they were in the habit of performing, and Mrs. Pendennis got a great secret comfort from the little quarrel—for Laura’s confession seemed to say, “That girl can never be a wife for Pen, for she is light-minded and heartless, and...1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Contains Both Love and Jealousy”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC...
  2. Relating to, or having the properties of, an osculatrix; capable of osculation.
    • A circle may be osculatory with a curve, at a given point.

Synonyms of osculatory

Forms of osculatory

Noun
pluralosculatories
Adjective
comparativemore osculatory
superlativemost osculatory

Origin of osculatory

From Latin ōsculātōrium.

From osculate + -ory.

Questions about osculatory

What does osculatory mean?
Osculatory means a religious tablet, usually carrying a representation of Christ or the Virgin Mary, which is kissed by the priest during the Mass ("kiss of peace"); it is then passed to others at the mass who also kiss it.
What part of speech is osculatory?
Osculatory can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of osculatory?
The plural of osculatory is osculatories.

Words near osculatory in the dictionary

  1. osculation
  2. osculations
  3. osculator
  4. osculatories
  5. osculators
  6. osculatory
  7. osculatrices
  8. osculatrix
  9. oscule
  10. oscules
  11. osculometer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: osculatory (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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