Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The office or term of office of a pontiff.
- v. To express opinions or judgments in a dogmatic way.
- v. To administer the office of a pontiff.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The office or dignity of a pontiff, high priest, or pope.
- n. The time during which a pontifical office is held by any given incumbent.
- To act officially as pontiff or bishop; especially, to say pontifical mass.
Wiktionary
- n. The state or term of office of a pontiff or pontifex.
- v. intransitive To preside as a bishop, especially at mass.
- v. intransitive To act like a pontiff; to express one’s position or opinions dogmatically and pompously as if they were absolutely correct.
- v. intransitive To speak in a patronizing, supercilious or pompous manner, especially at length.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state or dignity of a high priest; specifically, the office of the pope.
- n. The term of office of a pontiff.
- v. (R. C. Ch.) To perform the duty of a pontiff.
WordNet 3.0
- v. talk in a dogmatic and pompous manner
- v. administer a pontifical office
- n. the government of the Roman Catholic Church
Etymologies
- From the past participle stem of mediaeval Latin pontificare ("pontificate"), from Latin pontifex ("high priest"), from pons ("bridge") + facere ("make"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin pontificātus, from pontifex, pontific-, pontifex; see pontifex. V., from Medieval Latin pontificāre, pontificāt-, to act as an ecclesiastic, from Latin pontifex. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Today as the conclave announces its decision, the offering of prayers for this new pontificate is the most appropriate response from other Christian leaders," the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president, said in a written statement to United Church News.”
“The excess space they give you to iterate and re-iterate, describe, and have characters reflect and pontificate is nothing less than sheer luxury. on 08 Jul 2008 at 12: 33 pm Therese Walsh”
“One of the fascinating things about Pope Benedict's pontificate is how he has consistently and continually appealed to reason and to man's ability to think, know, and understand.”
“In short, Mr. Outside has been succeeded by Mr. Inside; and the story of Ratzinger's emergence as the Church's leader reveals the ways in which his pontificate is likely to affect the Church as a whole.”
“The problem with the blogosphere and and you lot that sit back and pontificate is that a keyboard and mouse have made you an expert.”
“Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali said, This pontificate is totally new.”
“He saw that the chief priest was unlikely to recover, calculated the odds, and decided the pontificate was a much better bet than either.”
“And I really do think the characteristic of his pontificate will be a clarity and depth at articulating the inner meaning of the faith as an articulation of the truth of the love that's revealed in Jesus Christ.”
“One of the most remarkable successes of his pontificate was the restoration of the Pontifical States, secured at the Congress of”
“The central idea of his pontificate was the liberation of Europe from”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pontificate’.
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set phasers to...
you name the setting
I've tuned mine to be gentler and kinder
following suit is not mandatory but would be appreciatedcoddle, confuse, flummox, tap, furrow, instigate, invigorate, punnify, logical, must... act... be..., bowdlerise, laughing gas and 435 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
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these I like very much
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My daily Wordsheets
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Favs
'nuf said
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3063 more... -
Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
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BonMots
assiduous, progeny, hegemony, nascent, reticent, ephemera, zeitgeist, recalcitrant, copious, corporeal, cacaphonous, obstreperous and 108 more...
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practice 2
100 words
momentous, domicile, adroit, ingenious, dexterous, genius, brevity, decorum, propriety, dignity, err, blunder and 91 more...
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Naresh_Gre
The path meanders through the vineyards
meander, labyrinth, Sinuous, gyrate, caron, awry, credo, banter, juxtaposition, argot, inexorable, foibles and 223 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Oooh, good word!
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SCRUBJAYS IDIOM
EXTRAPOLATE, altruistic, misanthropic, predicate, pejoritive, disparaging, bucolic, sylvan, veracity, autodidact, jejune, erudite and 110 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL P
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elij's Words
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Tweets
Looking for tweets for pontificate.

munjal.upadhyay speak bombastically
arrogant Mar 25, 2013
frindley "I think they might reconsider it given the fun and knowledge gained by the the logophiles and verbivores visiting sites like this one."
A nice example of pontification from everybody's (everybodie's? no…) favourite pompous old git. Notice the delightful way in which the writer assumes his readership to be, oh I don't know, about 50 years younger than he is, and the beautifully old-fashioned "for fun and profit" tone. Sep 9, 2008
reesetee Watch it, you guys, or we may have to depontificate you. ;-) Jan 18, 2008
sillygoose Blahblahblahblahblah. Jan 18, 2008
oroboros pontifi-kate; pontifi-ket. Nov 22, 2007