Word.ws English Dictionary

pontificate

UK/pɒnˈtɪf.ɪ.kət//pɔnˈtɪf.ə.kət/

pontificate noun: the status or term of office of a pontiff or pontifex.

Noun

pontificate (plural pontificates)

  1. The status or term of office of a pontiff or pontifex.

Verb

UK/pɒnˈtɪf.ɪ.keɪt/US/pɔnˈtɪf.ə.keɪt/

pontificate (third-person singular simple present pontificates, present participle pontificating, simple past and past participle pontificated)

  1. (intransitive) To preside as a bishop, especially at mass.
  2. (intransitive) To act like a pontiff; to express one's position or opinions dogmatically and pompously as if they were absolutely correct.
  3. (intransitive) To speak in a patronizing, supercilious or pompous manner, especially at length.
    • During a policy discussion awhile^([sic]) back about New York issues, when Mr. Clinton began to pontificate, she told him that he did not exactly know what he was talking about and to hush up.2007 May 13, Patrick Healy, “In New Role, Senator Clinton’s Strategist in Chief”, in New York Times
    • "Do you hear that, Ryan? Your mommy is being a pontificating windbag."2014 January 16, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 482 - Blood

pontificate meaning in Malayalam and Indonesian

pontificate in Malayalam

preach, hold forth, expound
മഹാചാര്യ മട്ടിൽ സംസാരിക്കുക, അപ്രമാദിത്വം ഭാവിച്ചു സംസാരിക്കുക, ആദർശം പ്രസംഗിക്കുക, പ്രഭാഷിക്കുക, നീണ്ട പ്രസംഗം ചെയ്യുക, വാഗ് വൈഭവം പ്രകടിപ്പിക്കുക

pontificate in Indonesian

state of a pontifex
pontifikat

Examples of pontificate in a sentence

  • He provokes, inspires, pontificates and jargonizes unto "hegemony" and "archaic parental imagos."
  • This chapter begins with an overview of the pontificate of Pius IX and the historical setting of Vatican I.
  • I need to pontificate on something that really grinds me.

All 11 example sentences with pontificate

Forms of pontificate

Noun
pluralpontificates
Verb
third-person singular presentpontificates
present participlepontificating
past participlepontificated
pastpontificated

Plural of pontificate: pontificates

Origin of pontificate

From Latin pontificatus, from pontifex (“high priest”), from pons (“bridge”) + facere (“make”).

From the past participle stem of Medieval Latin pontificō, from Latin pontifex (“high priest”), from pons (“bridge”) + facere (“make”).

Words formed from pontificate

Questions about pontificate

What does pontificate mean?
Pontificate means the status or term of office of a pontiff or pontifex.
What is pontificate in Malayalam?
Pontificate in Malayalam is മഹാചാര്യ മട്ടിൽ സംസാരിക്കുക, അപ്രമാദിത്വം ഭാവിച്ചു സംസാരിക്കുക, ആദർശം പ്രസംഗിക്കുക. See Pontificate meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is pontificate?
Pontificate can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce pontificate?
Pontificate is pronounced /pɒnˈtɪf.ɪ.kət/ (UK).
What is the plural of pontificate?
The plural of pontificate is pontificates.

Words near pontificate in the dictionary

  1. pontificalia
  2. pontificalities
  3. pontificality
  4. pontifically
  5. pontificals
  6. pontificate
  7. pontificated
  8. pontificates
  9. pontificating
  10. pontificatingly
  11. pontificatings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pontificate (page history and authors); pontificate (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pontificate_noun.ogg, en-au-pontificate.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pontificate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pontificate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.