Pontiff

Definition: Pontiff

Pontiff

Noun

1. The head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Date "pontiff" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1517. (references)

Etymology: Pontiff \Pon"tiff\, noun. [French expression pontife, from Latin expression pontifex, -ficis; pons, pontis, bridge (perhaps originally, way, path) facere to make. Compare to Pontoon.]. (Websters 1913)

Domain	Definition
Literature	Pontiff means one who has charge of the bridges. According to Varro, the highest class of the Roman priesthood had to superintend the construction of the bridges (ponies). (See Ramsay: Roman Antiquities, p. 51.) "Well has the name of Pontifex been given Unto the church's head, as the chief builder And architect of the invisible bridge That leads from earth to heaven." Longfellow: Golden Legend, v. Here Longfellow follows the general notion that "pontiff" is from pons-facio, and refers to the tradition that a Roman priest threw over the Tiber, in the time of Numa, a sublician, or wooden bridge. Salflieius means made of timber or piles. There were subsequently eight stone bridges, and Æmilius converted the sublician bridge into a stone one. There were fifteen pontiffs in the time of Sylla. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The term pontiff is a title for a religious leader. In comes from Latin and means a bridge between God and humanity. The Pontifex Maximus being the highest religious figure in ancient Rome. Other religious leaders were also considered pontiffs, however. Today the term is almost exclusively used to describe the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

Synonym: Pontiff

Synonym: pope (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Clergy	Pope, Papa, pontiff, high priest, cardinal; ancient flamen, flamen; confessor, penitentiary; spiritual director.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Pontiff

English words defined with "pontiff": Dalai Lama ♦ Papal infallibility, Pontifician ♦ The Grand Lama ♦ Vicar apostolic. (references)

Specialty definitions using "pontiff": Sagan of Jerusalem, Stones. (references)

Etymologies containing "pontiff": Pontifice. (references)

Domain	Usage
Lyrics	You have cleared them with the Pontiff. (The Vatican Rag; performing artist: Tom Lehrer)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Billy Martin Meets the Pontiff (reference) Gurudeva Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Maharaj, reigning Pontiff of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham (reference) John Paul II: Images of the Pontiff (reference) Pontiff (reference) Pontiff paths : 200 years in Louisiana (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Pope Pius IX	The Roman pontiff can and ought to reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man	Joyce, James	His day began with an heroic offering of its every moment of thought or action for the intentions of the sovereign pontiff and with an early mass.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Pontiff" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 87.50% of the time. "Pontiff" is used about 16 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	87.5%	14	93,893
Noun (proper)	12.5%	2	245,945
Total	100.00%	16	N/A

The following table summarizes the usage of "pontiff" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified.

Name	Usage/Gender	Usage per 100 million Persons	Rank in USA
Pontiff	Last name	1,000	15,378
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Expression using "pontiff": sovereign pontiff. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "pontiff"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		prift i lartë, peshkop (bishop, diocesan, episcopate, surrogate), papë (pope). (various references)

Arabic		‏كبير الكهنة (dean), ‏حبر (ink), ‏الحبر (rabbi), ‏الأسقف, ‏البابا (pope). (various references)

Bulgarian		владика (bishop), епископ (diocesan, ordinary), архиерей, първосвещеник (high priest), папа (pope). (various references)

Czech		papež (pope), biskup (bishop). (various references)

Farsi		پاپ (Papa), کاهن بزرگ , کشیش بزرگ . (various references)

French		pontife, souverain. (various references)

German		Hohepriester (pontiffs). (various references)

Greek		πάπασ (pope), αρχιερεύσ. (various references)

Hebrew		אפיפיור (pope). (various references)

Hungarian		püspök (bishop, suffragan, suffragan bishop), pápa (holy father, pope), fõpap (high priest, prelate). (various references)

Indonesian		paus (pope). (various references)

Italian		pontefice, papa (pa, pope). (various references)

Manx		ard-saggyrt (hierarch, high priest). (various references)

Pig Latin		ontiffpay

Portuguese		pontífice, papa (mash, pap, pope, vicar of christ), apunhalar (Dirk, jab, stab, stick). (various references)

Romanian		prelat (dignitary, prelate), pontif (panjandrum), papã (food, pope, sovereign pontiff). (various references)

Russian		римский папа (pope), епископ (bishop). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		papa (papa, pope), episkop (bishop), biskup (bishop). (various references)

Spanish		pontífice (Pontifex). (various references)

Swedish		påve (pope). (various references)

Turkish		papa (holy father, pope, vicar of christ, vicar of jesus christ), ruhani lider (dignitary), dini lider, başpiskopos (archbishop, primate), baş rahip (prelate). (various references)

Ukrainian		�"пископ (bishop, rochet), папа римський (pope). (various references)

Vietnamese		giám mục (prelate). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "pontiff": pontiffs. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Pontiff" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: goniff, Pantulf, Pitoeff, pontif, pontife, pontify, potyf. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "pontiff" (pronounced pÄ"ntuf)
4	-n t u f	plaintiff.
3	-t u f	mastiff.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "f-f-i-n-o-p-t"
	-1 letter: tipoff.
	-2 letters: pinot, pinto, piton, point.
	-3 letters: fino, foin, font, info, into, pfft, pint, pion, tiff, toff, topi.
	-4 letters: fin, fit, fon, fop, iff, ion, nip, nit, not, off, oft, opt, pin, pit, poi, pot, tin, tip, ton, top.
	-5 letters: if, in, it, no, of, on, op, pi, ti, to.
	Words containing the letters "f-f-i-n-o-p-t"
	+1 letter: offprint, pontiffs.
	+2 letters: offprints.
	+3 letters: offprinted.
	+4 letters: offprinting.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.