pontiff

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs; a pontifex.
  2. A bishop of the early Church; now specifically, the Pope.
  3. Any chief figure or leader of a religion.
name
  1. A surname transferred from the nickname.

Pronunciation

/ˈpɒntɪf/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pontiff.wav

Word forms

pontiff pontiffs

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French pontife m, from Latin pontifex m. Doublet of pontifex.

Related words

Derived words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.