Word.ws English Dictionary

two swords

two swords noun: spiritual and temporal power, church and state.

two swords: spiritual and temporal power, church and state
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

the two swords pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) Spiritual and temporal power, church and state.
    • The most clear-cut definition of the Pope's possession of the two swords was given in Boniface VIII’s famous bull Unam Sanctam, which stressed the unity of Christendom under its single head.1952, C. W. Previté-Orton, The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History, volume 2, page 943
    • […] the dispute between the two swords cut deep into the countryside in ways that the authors of ecclesiastical and revolutionary policy neither intended nor anticipated.2004, Matthew Butler, Popular Piety and Political Identity in Mexico's Cristero Rebellion: Michoacán, 1927–29, →ISBN, page 3
  2. (plural, plural-only) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see two, sword.

Origin of two swords

Allegorical interpretation of Luke 22:38, “Behold, here are two swords”.

Words that rhyme with two swords

Questions about two swords

What does two swords mean?
Two swords means spiritual and temporal power, church and state.
What part of speech is two swords?
Two swords is a noun.

Words near two swords in the dictionary

  1. two slips of latinum
  2. two solitudes
  3. two spirit
  4. two spirits
  5. two steps ahead
  6. two swords
  7. two tears in a bucket
  8. two thirds
  9. two thousand
  10. two thousand and late
  11. two thousands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: two swords (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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