Word.ws English Dictionary

pontifice

pontifice noun: bridgework; structure or edifice of a bridge.

Noun

pontifice

  1. (archaic) Bridgework; structure or edifice of a bridge.
    • With joy / And tidings fraught, to Hell he now return'd, / And at the brink of Chaos, neer the foot / Of this new wondrous Pontifice, unhop't / Met who to meet him came, his Ofspring dear.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, signature...
  2. (obsolete) pontiff

Origin of pontifice

From Latin pontificem, accusative singular of pontifex, from the noun pons, pontis (“a bridge”) + facere (“to make”). Compare pontiff.

Questions about pontifice

What does pontifice mean?
Pontifice means bridgework; structure or edifice of a bridge.
What part of speech is pontifice?
Pontifice is a noun.

Words near pontifice in the dictionary

  1. pontification
  2. pontifications
  3. pontificator
  4. pontificators
  5. pontificatory
  6. pontifice
  7. pontifices
  8. pontificial
  9. pontificially
  10. pontifician
  11. pontificians

Source and license

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