Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state, dignity, and government of the Pope; the papacy.
  • noun plural Same as pontifical, 2.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare The state and government of the pope; the papacy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state and government of the pope; the papacy.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • By which means it is, yet by my courtesy, that scarce any kind of men live more voluptuously or with less trouble; as believing that Christ will be well enough pleased if in their mystical and almost mimical pontificality, ceremonies, titles of holiness and the like, and blessing and cursing, they play the parts of bishops.

    In Praise of Folly c. 1466-1536 1958

  • And this was so really done, that in the cathedral church of Salisbury (unless it be lately defaced) there is a perfect monument of one of these Boy-Bishops (who died in the time of his young pontificality), accoutred in his episcopal robes, still to be seen.

    The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day Alexander F. Chamberlain

  • By which means it is, yet by my courtesy, that scarce any kind of men live more voluptuously or with less trouble; as believing that Christ will be well enough pleased if in their mystical and almost mimical pontificality, ceremonies, titles of holiness and the like, and blessing and cursing, they play the parts of bishops.

    The Praise of Folly Desiderius Erasmus 1502

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