pontifical

1. 1.

   proceeding from or ordered by or subject to a pope or the papacy regarded as the successor of the Apostles

   “papal dispensation”

   Synonymspapalapostolicapostolical
2. 2.

   denoting or governed by or relating to a bishop or bishops

   Synonymsepiscopal
3. 3.

   puffed up with vanity

   “a grandiloquent and boastful manner”

   “overblown oratory”

   “a pompous speech”

   “pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey”

   Synonymsgrandiloquentoverblownpompousportentous

   Similarpretentious

1. 1.

   the vestments and other insignia of a pontiff (especially a bishop)

   Broadervestment

Other forms of pontifical

plural

pontificals·

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 pontifical

What does pontifical mean?

pontifical means "proceeding from or ordered by or subject to a pope or the papacy regarded as the successor of the Apostles". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in pontifical?

pontifical has 4 syllables: pon-tif-i-cal. The stress falls on "tif". In IPA it is /pɑnˈtɪfəkəl/.

What is another word for pontifical?

Close synonyms include papal, apostolic, apostolical, episcopal, grandiloquent. 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 pontifical a common word?

pontifical is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.