Word.ws English Dictionary

pandect

Syllables: pan·dect/ˈpændɛkt/US/ˈpænˌdɛkt/

pandect noun: usually in the plural form Pandects: a compendium or digest of writings on Roman law divided in 50 books, compiled in the 6th century C.E. by order of the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I (c. 482–565).

Noun

pandect (plural pandects)

  1. (Ancient-Rome, historical) Usually in the plural form Pandects: a compendium or digest of writings on Roman law divided in 50 books, compiled in the 6th century C.E. by order of the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I (c. 482–565).
    • After upwards of Thirty Years Study, and a painful Induſtry, in compiling A New Pandect or Complete Body of the Roman Civil Law; the Firſt Volume of this Undertaking craves Leave to appear in the World under the Patronage and Protection of your Lordſhip, [...]1734, John Ayliffe, “[Dedication]”, in A New Pandect of Roman Civil Law, […], London: Printed for Tho[mas] Osborne, […], →OCLC
    • And altho' there are many relations of perfect hermaphrodites, creatures that poſſeſſed the power of both ſexes, and could both beget and conceive children, yet theſe relations are treated as fabulous, notwithſtanding ſome laws concerning them are found both in the Roman and Gallic pandect.1750 January, “We See in a Monthly Book Published at Paris, with the Royal License, an Advertisement with a New Print of a Remarkable and Famous Hermaphrodite, …”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym...
  2. (broadly, rare) Also in the plural form pandects: a comprehensive collection of laws; specifically, the whole body of law of a country; a legal code.
    • In a word, it [Scripture] is a Panary of holeſome foode, againſt fenowed traditions; a Phyſions-ſhop (Saint Baſill calleth it) of preſeruatiues against poiſoned hereſies; a Pandect of profitable lawes, againſt rebellious ſpirits; a treaſurie of moſt coſtly iewels, againſt beggarly rudiments...1611, [Miles Smith], “The Translators to the Reader”, in The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC
    • Give me the Pandects of the Law Divine, / Such was the Law made Moſes face to ſhine.1682, Thomas Flatman, “The Review. Pindaric Ode to Dr. W. S.”, in Poems and Songs, 3rd edition, London: Printed for Benjamin Tooke, […], →OCLC, stanza IX, page 21
    Synonyms:
    digest
  3. (also, broadly, figuratively) A treatise or similar work that is comprehensive as to a particular topic; specifically (Christianity) a manuscript of the entire Bible.
    • The table of contents which we inſert here will give a juſt idea of the method with which this ſmall pandect of morality is compoſed.1750 November, “Art. XV. The Œconomy of Human Life, Translated from an Indian Manuscript, Written by an Ancient Bramin; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Manner in which the Said Manuscript was...
    • During a visit to Rome in 679–80, the Anglo-Saxon monk Ceolfrith from Northumbria acquired a magnificent pandect, an entire Bible bound as one volume, and brought it back to England with him, to his monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow. We now know that the book that Ceolfrith bought in Rome was the...2003, Carmella Vircillo Franklin, “Bilingual Philology in Bede’s Exegesis”, in Richard F. Gyug, editor, Medieval Cultures in Contact (Fordham Series in Medieval Studies; 1), New York, N.Y.: Fordham...

Examples of pandect in a sentence

  • But the juriſprudence of the Pandects is circumſcribed within a period of an hundred years, from the perpetual edict to the death of Severus Alexander: [...]1788, Edward Gibbon, chapter XLIV, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume IV, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan...
  • Pandects, manuscript-volumes containing all the books of the Old and New Testaments, were enormous and very rare.2006, Mary Dove, “The Middle Ages”, in John F. A. Sawyer, editor, The Blackwell Companion to the Bible and Culture (Blackwell Companions to...

Synonyms of pandect

Forms of pandect

pluralpandects

Origin of pandect

Sense 3 (“comprehensive treatise”) is from Latin pandectēs (“book that contains everything, encyclopedia”), from Ancient Greek πανδέκτης (pandéktēs, “encyclopedia”, literally “all-receiver”), from παν- (pan-, prefix meaning ‘all’) (from πᾶς (pâs, “all”)) + δέκτης (déktēs, “receiver, recipient”) (from δέχομαι (dékhomai, “to receive”) (from Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to take; to perceive”)) + -της (-tēs, suffix forming agent nouns)). Sense 1 (“compendium of writings on Roman law”) in the plural form Pandects is from Late Latin pandectae (“the Pandects”), the plural of pandectēs, modelled after (Byzantine) Ancient Greek πανδέκται (pandéktai, “the Pandects”), the plural of πανδέκτης (pandéktēs): see further above.

Words formed from pandect

Questions about pandect

What does pandect mean?
Pandect means usually in the plural form Pandects: a compendium or digest of writings on Roman law divided in 50 books, compiled in the 6th century C.E. by order of the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I (c. 482–565).
How do you use pandect in a sentence?
But the juriſprudence of the Pandects is circumſcribed within a period of an hundred years, from the perpetual edict to the death of Severus Alexander: [...]
What part of speech is pandect?
Pandect is a noun.
How do you pronounce pandect?
Pandect is pronounced /ˈpændɛkt/ (UK).
What is the plural of pandect?
The plural of pandect is pandects.

Words near pandect in the dictionary

  1. Pande
  2. Pandean
  3. Pandean harmonica
  4. Pandean pipes
  5. pandebono
  6. pandect
  7. pandectist
  8. pandectists
  9. pandects
  10. Pandeglang
  11. pandeid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pandect (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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