pontiff

Other forms of pontiff

plural

pontiffs·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about pontiff

What does pontiff mean?

pontiff means "the head of the Roman Catholic Church".

How many syllables are in pontiff?

pontiff has 2 syllables: pon-tiff. The stress falls on "pon". In IPA it is /ˈpɑntəf/.

What is another word for pontiff?

Close synonyms include pope, Catholic Pope, Roman Catholic Pope, Holy Father, Vicar of Christ. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is pontiff a common word?

pontiff is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.