pontificate

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noun pon·tif·i·cate \ pän-ˈti-fi-kət , -ˌkāt \

Definition of pontificate

:the state, office, or term of office of a pontiff

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pontificate was our Word of the Day on 02/28/2015. Hear the podcast!

Examples of pontificate in a Sentence

He was elected to the pontificate last year.
during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II

Recent Examples of pontificate from the Web

Francis has made refugees a priority of his pontificate, making his first trip outside Rome in 2013 to the island of Lampedusa, ground zero in Europe’s migration crisis.

— Washington Post, "Pope: Rights of migrants trump national security concerns," 21 Aug. 2017
Dr. Navarro-Valls led the media office for not quite two years into the pontificate of his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, before retiring.

— emily langer, Washington Post, "Joaquín Navarro-Valls, spokesman and image-maker for Pope John Paul II, dies at 80," 6 July 2017
ROME—Pope Francis named a new head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, sidelining a leading opponent of his efforts to liberalize the Catholic Church and further diminishing a body already much weakened under his pontificate.

— francis x. rocca, WSJ, "Pope Francis Ousts Conservative Doctrine Chief at Vatican," 1 July 2017
Well into Pope Francis’s pontificate, one of his closest aides, the third-highest official in the Catholic Church, Cardinal George Pell, has now been credibly accused of several acts of sexual assault, including one of rape.

— andrew sullivan, Daily Intelligencer, "Cardinal Pell and the Vatican’s Day of Reckoning," 30 June 2017
The playwright doesn’t pontificate, but the juxtaposition of the tales is troubling.

— lynn trenning, charlotteobserver, "Two love stories – and 50+ years of how we think about love, lust, choice," 8 May 2017
Real-life critics of the real-life pope whisper that his pontificate can be rigid and unforgiving.

— jason horowitz, New York Times, "You May Be ‘The Young Pope,’ but You’re No Francis," 13 Feb. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'pontificate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of pontificate

Middle English, from Latin pontificatus, from pontific-, pontifex

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

See Words from the same year

Other Christian Religious Terms

Pentateuch, blasphemy, curate, doxology, eremite, iconoclasm, liturgy, orison, pneuma, reliquary

pontificate

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verb pon·tif·i·cate \ pän-ˈti-fə-ˌkāt \

Definition of pontificate

pontificated; pontificating

intransitive verb

1 a :to officiate as a pontiff

b :to celebrate pontifical mass

2 :to speak or express opinions in a pompous or dogmatic way

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pontification

play \(ˌ)pän-ˌti-fə-ˈkā-shən\ noun

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pontificator

play \-ˌkā-tər\ noun

See pontificate defined for English-language learners

Examples of pontificate in a Sentence

We had to listen to her pontificate about the best way to raise children.

Recent Examples of pontificate from the Web

Trashing Sessions, threatening Mueller, pontificating on Napoleon, and more.

— vanityfair.com, "Unpacking the Times’s “Incredible” Trump Interview," 20 July 2017
There are no brothers in arms, no flashbacks to simpler times and pretty wives and girlfriends left behind, no old men in situation rooms pontificating about politics or helping with exposition.

— lindsey bahr, Cincinnati.com, "Review: ‘Dunkirk’ is the best film of the year," 20 July 2017
Take, for instance, progressive darling Lena Dunham, the sometimes actress and screenwriter who appears to spend the bulk of her time pontificating on the Left’s petissues.

— alexandra desanctis, National Review, "Planned Parenthood’s Lavish Private Donations," 13 July 2017
Nearly every lion that heard a political pundit pontificating ran away immediately, and more than half of the frightened lions never returned to finish their meal.

— sarah kaplan, Alaska Dispatch News, "Mountain lions are terrified by the voices of Rush Limbaugh and Rachel Maddow," 22 June 2017
Britain’s political pundits pontificated that the platform spelled doom for the left-leaning party, but the document instead energized young voters, who turned in droves for Corbyn earlier this month.

— will bunch, Philly.com, "The Dems look lost. Could a mustachioed ironworker from Wisconsin save them?," 21 June 2017
There is no shortage of analysis and pontificating about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in the White House.

— ryan blethen, The Seattle Times, "‘The Simpsons’ troll President Trump about his first 100 days in the White House," 27 Apr. 2017
This is not a book to be a stickler about; that would be like pontificating about microbrews instead of just getting drunk.

— virginia heffernan, New York Times, "Steven Johnson on How Play Shaped the World," 22 Nov. 2016
But W. was in Washington, far out of earshot of the stage at Shepherd's Bush Empire theatre in London from where Maines pontificated.

— richard e. farley, Town & Country, "A Brief History of Artists Giving the President Their Unvarnished Opinion," 21 Nov. 2016

Did You Know?

In ancient Rome, the pontifices were powerful priests who administered the part of civil law that regulated relationships with the deities recognized by the state. Their name, pontifex, derives from the Latin words pons, meaning "bridge," and facere, meaning "to make," and some think it may have developed because the group was associated with a sacred bridge over the river Tiber (although there is no proof of that). With the rise of Catholicism, the title "pontifex" was transferred to the Pope and to Catholic bishops. Pontificate derives from "pontifex," and in its earliest English uses it referred to things associated with such prelates. By the early 1800s, "pontificate" was also being used derisively for individuals who spoke as if they had the authority of an ecclesiastic.