Word.ws English Dictionary

pontifical

/pɒnˈtɪfɪk(ə)l/US/pɑnˈtɪfɪk(ə)l/

pontifical adjective: of or pertaining to a bishop; episcopal.

Adjective

pontifical (comparative more pontifical, superlative most pontifical)

  1. Of or pertaining to a bishop; episcopal.
  2. Of or pertaining to a pope; papal.
  3. Pompous, dignified or dogmatic.
  4. Splendid; magnificent.
  5. Of or pertaining to the pontifices of Ancient Rome.
  6. (poetic) Of or relating to the building or forming of bridges.
    • Now had they brought the work by wondrous art / Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock / Over the vexed abyss.1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...

Noun

pontifical (plural pontificals)

  1. A book containing the offices, or formulas, used by a pontiff.
    • Both ordines are related to an ordo in a pontifical in Reims, the Ordo of 1200 (Ordo XIX). The latter was to be consulted again and again, and its formulas were to have a marked effect upon the French ceremony; […]1995, Richard A. Jackson, Ordines coronationis Franciae […] , page 30
    • William Durandus, bishop of Mende in the south of France, compiled a pontifical in three books. William never intended his work to be a universal pontifical, but its clarity of arrangement and quality of substance, along with […]2001, Leon F. Strieder, The Promise of Obedience: A Ritual History, page 32

pontifical meaning in Bengali and Malayalam

pontifical in Bengali

পোপ, উচ্চপদস্থ ধর্মযাজক সংক্রান্ত

pontifical in Malayalam

self-important, pompous, cocksure
അപ്രമാദിത്വം അവകാശപ്പെടുന്ന, പ്രൗഢി കാട്ടുന്ന, മഹാപ്രതാപമായ, പൊങ്ങച്ചം കാട്ടുന്ന, പൊള്ളപ്രതാപം കാട്ടുന്ന, അമിതമായി ആത്മവിശ്വാസമുള്ള

Forms of pontifical

Adjective
comparativemore pontifical
superlativemost pontifical
Noun
pluralpontificals

Origin of pontifical

Learned borrowing from Latin pontificālis.

Words formed from pontifical

Phrases with pontifical

Questions about pontifical

What does pontifical mean?
Pontifical means of or pertaining to a bishop; episcopal.
What is pontifical in Bengali?
Pontifical in Bengali is পোপ, উচ্চপদস্থ ধর্মযাজক সংক্রান্ত. See Pontifical meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is pontifical?
Pontifical can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce pontifical?
Pontifical is pronounced /pɒnˈtɪfɪk(ə)l/ (UK).

Words near pontifical in the dictionary

  1. ponties
  2. pontifex
  3. pontiff
  4. pontiffs
  5. pontific
  6. pontifical
  7. Pontifical States
  8. pontificalia
  9. pontificalities
  10. pontificality
  11. pontifically

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pontifical (page history and authors); pontifical (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pontifical (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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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Cite this entry: “pontifical.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pontifical. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.