Word.ws English Dictionary

priestly

/ˈpɹiːstli/

priestly adjective: of or relating to priests.

Adjective (1)

priestly (comparative more priestly or priestlier, superlative most priestly or priestliest)

  1. Of or relating to priests.
  2. Having the appearance of or resembling a priest.

Proper noun capitalized: Priestly

Priestly (plural Priestlys)

  1. A habitational surname from Old English.

Adjective (2) capitalized: Priestly

Priestly (not generally comparable, comparative more Priestly, superlative most Priestly)

  1. (not comparable, usually) Pertaining to the Priestly source (“P”), one of the sources of the Torah or Pentateuch according to the documentary hypothesis.
    • Thus we continue to meet the new Priestly expression, “you (they) shall know that I am Yahweh” […]1971, Norman Habel, Literary Criticism of the Old Testament, →ISBN, page 79
    • Then, Welch (1939) went the opposite way, asserting that the original layer, written before the end of the exile showed Deuteronomy’s influence and that more Priestly texts were secondary.2004, Steven L. McKenzie, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries: I & II Chronicles, →ISBN, page 27

priestly meaning in Malayalam

priestly in Malayalam

pastoral, clerical, priest-like
പൗരോഹിത്യം സംബന്ധിച്ച, പൗരോഹിത്യപരമായ, പുരോഹിതനെസംബന്ധിച്ച, ആത്മീയോപദേശിയെ സംബന്ധിച്ച, പൗരോഹിത്യ സംബന്ധമായ, പുരോഹിതഗണത്തെ സംബന്ധിക്കുന്ന

Examples of priestly in a sentence

  • In feudal days lay brothers were usually uneducated commoners, who did most menial, manual labor while the learned priestly monks held the more spiritual jobs.
  • H is priestly, evincing concern for cultic sacrifices, cultic observances, the behavior of priests, and ethical matters.
  • Initially these chapellers were the least theologically radical of the priestly Old Believers.

All 17 example sentences with priestly

Synonyms of priestly

Forms of priestly

Adjective
comparativemore priestly
comparativepriestlier
superlativemost priestly
superlativepriestliest
comparativemore Priestly
superlativemost Priestly
Proper noun
pluralPriestlys

Origin of priestly

From Middle English prestly; equivalent to priest + -ly.

Variant of Priestley.

Semantic loan from German priesterlich and Priesterschrift (“Priestly source”, literally “priest document”), so called because of the reconstructed source’s emphasis on cultic issues. See priestly.

Words formed from priestly

Words that rhyme with priestly

Questions about priestly

What does priestly mean?
Priestly means of or relating to priests.
What is priestly in Malayalam?
Priestly in Malayalam is പൗരോഹിത്യം സംബന്ധിച്ച, പൗരോഹിത്യപരമായ, പുരോഹിതനെസംബന്ധിച്ച. See Priestly meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is priestly?
Priestly can be an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce priestly?
Priestly is pronounced /ˈpɹiːstli/.

Words near priestly in the dictionary

  1. priestliest
  2. priestlike
  3. priestliness
  4. priestling
  5. priestlings
  6. priestly
  7. Priestlys
  8. Priestman
  9. priestmonk
  10. priestmonks
  11. priestress

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: priestly (page history and authors); Priestly (page history and authors); priestly (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-priestly.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Qwertygiy-priestly.wav.

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