Vatican
UK/ˈvæ.tɪ.kən/
Vatican proper noun: the official residence of the Pope within Vatican City, the Vatican or Apostolic Palace.
Proper noun
the Vatican
- The official residence of the Pope within Vatican City, the Vatican or Apostolic Palace.
- The papal government; the papacy, the Holy See.
- A city-state in Southern Europe, an enclave within the city of Rome, Italy.
- Unlike most other countries in the world, citizenship in Vatican City isn’t solely provided to people that are born in the country. As there are no hospitals in the Vatican State, virtually no one is born in there. Instead, Vatican citizenship is provided on a ‘jus officii’ basis.2019 October 3, Ellen Curtin, “Everything You Wanted to Know about Vatican City”, in City Wonders, archived from the original on 13 Jun 2025
- Synonyms:
- Vatican City
- The Vatican Hill in Rome, where the palace and Vatican City are located.
- He [Caligula] began to build a circus upon the Vatican.1856, The Art of Building in Ancient and Modern Times […], volume 1, page 75
Adjective
Vatican (not comparable)
- Relating to the Vatican City state.
- Unlike most other countries in the world, citizenship in Vatican City isn’t solely provided to people that are born in the country. As there are no hospitals in the Vatican State, virtually no one is born in there. Instead, Vatican citizenship is provided on a ‘jus officii’ basis.2019 October 3, Ellen Curtin, “Everything You Wanted to Know about Vatican City”, in City Wonders, archived from the original on 13 Jun 2025
Vatican meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
Vatican in Hindi
- state — see also Vatican City
- वेटिकन veṭikan
Vatican in Tamil
- திருத்தந்தை கோயில், போப்பாண்டவரின் அலுவலக மண்டபம், போப்பாண்டவரின் சமய ஆட்சி
Vatican in Marathi
- state — see also Vatican City
- व्हॅटिकन vhĕṭikan
Vatican in Urdu
- state — see also Vatican City
- ویٹِیکَن veṭīkan
More languagesFewer languages
- Vatican in Bengali
- ভ্যাটিকান bhêṭikan
- Vatican in Telugu
- వాటికన్ vāṭikan
- Vatican in Malayalam
- വത്തിക്കാന് vattikkāṉ
- Vatican in Gujarati
- વેટિકન veṭikan
- Vatican in Sinhala
- වතිකානු watikānu
- Vatican in Tagalog
- Batikano, batikano
- Vatican in Arabic
- الْفَاتِيكَان al-fatikān
- Vatican in Malay
- Vatikan
- Vatican in Indonesian
- Vatikan
- Vatican in Thai
- วาติกัน waa-dtì-gan
- Vatican in Vietnamese
- Va-ti-căng
- Vatican in Myanmar
- ဗာတီကန် batikan
- Dhivehi
- ވެޓިކަން veṭikan̊
Synonyms of Vatican
Origin of Vatican
Learned borrowing from Latin Vātī̆cānus (“Vatican Hill”), further etymology unknown. The connection to vāticinārī (“to prophesy, oracle”) is folk-etymological.
Words formed from Vatican
Phrases with Vatican
Questions about Vatican
- What does Vatican mean?
- Vatican means the official residence of the Pope within Vatican City, the Vatican or Apostolic Palace.
- What is Vatican in Hindi?
- Vatican in Hindi is वेटिकन (veṭikan). See Vatican meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is Vatican?
- Vatican can be a proper noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce Vatican?
- Vatican is pronounced /ˈvæ.tɪ.kən/ (UK).
Words near Vatican in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Vatican (page history and authors); vatican (Tamil Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-Vatican.ogg.
Cite this entry: “Vatican.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vatican. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.