Word.ws English Dictionary

pontificated

pontificated is the simple past and past participle of pontificate.

Meaning of pontificate

Verb

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

See all 4 meanings of pontificate

Questions about pontificated

What is pontificated the simple past and past participle of?
Pontificated is the simple past and past participle of pontificate.

Words near pontificated in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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

Last updated:

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