Pastoral

Definitions: Pastoral

Pastoral

Adjective

1. Of or relating to a pastor; "pastoral work"; "a pastoral letter".

2. Relating to shepherds or herdsmen or devoted to raising sheep or cattle; "pastoral seminomadic people"; "pastoral land"; "a pastoral economy".

3. Used of idealized country life; "a country life of arcadian contentment"; "a pleasant bucolic scene"; "charming in its pastoral setting"; "rustic tranquility".

4. Suggestive of an idyll; charmingly simple and serene; "his idyllic life in Tahiti"; "the pastoral legends of America's Golden Age".

Noun

1. A musical composition that evokes rural life.

2. A letter from a pastor to the congregation.

3. A literary work idealizing the rural life (especially the life of shepherds).

Date "pastoral" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Synonyms: Pastoral

Synonyms: arcadian (adj), bucolic (adj), idyllic (adj), rustic (adj), idyll (n), pastorale (n). (additional references)

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Specialty Definition: Pastoral

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Pastoral Concert, by Titian

Pastoral is a style of art, be it literature, painting, or another form, that focuses on villages and herdsmen, particularly shepherds and milkmaids, who are romanticized and depicted in a highly unrealistic manner.

The pastoral genre was invented in the Hellenistic era by the Sicilian poet Theocritus, who may have drawn on authentic folk traditions of Sicilian shepherds. The Roman poet Vergil adopted the invention and wrote eclogues, which are poems on rustic and bucolic subjects, that set an example for the pastoral mood in literature. Later pastoral poets, such as Edmund Spenser and William Wordsworth, typically looked to the classical pastoral poets for inspiration. A typical mood is set by Christopher Marlowe's well known lines from "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love":

Come live with me and be my Love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dale and field,

And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks

And see the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers, to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

Pastoral shepherds and maidens usually had Greek names like Poliphilus or Philomela. Pastoral poems were often set in Arcadia, a rural region of Greece, mythological home of the god Pan, which was portrayed as a sort of Eden by the poets. The tasks of their employment with sheep and other rustic chores were held in the fantasy to be almost wholly undemanding and backgrounded, and to leave the shepherdesses and their swains in a state of almost perfect leisure. This made them available for embodying perpetual erotic fantasies. The shepherds spent their time chasing pretty girls --- or, at least in the Greek and Roman versions, pretty lads as well. The eroticism of Vergil's second eclogue, Formosum pastor Corydon ardebat Alexin ("The shepherd Corydon burned with passion for pretty Alexis") is entirely homosexual.

A harsher note was struck in Girolamo Fracastoro's 1530 poem Syphilis, sive Morbus Gallicus ("Syphilis, or the French Disease"), in which Syphilus ("pig-lover"), a typical pastoral name for a shepherd, is stricken by the disease syphilis that takes its name from Fracastoro's poem. Fracastoro's poem contains the first recognisable description of the symptoms of syphilis; today, far too few contemporary physicians announce their discoveries in verse, pastoral or otherwise. Fracastoro has Syphilus the shepherd catch it for having offended Apollo, a somewhat unusual method of infection. Fracastoro's Latin poem was much admired in its day; it was translated into English heroic couplets by Nahum Tate:

A shepherd once (distrust not ancient fame)

Possest these Downs, and Syphilus his Name;

Some destin'd Head t'attone the Crimes of all,

On Syphilus the dreadful Lot did fall.

Through what adventures this unknown Disease

So lately did astonisht Europe seize,

Through Asian coasts and Libyan Cities ran,

And from what Seeds the Malady began,

Our Song shall tell: to Naples first it came

From France, and justly took from France his Name. . .

Pastoral paintings, likewise, were typically used to give the respectability of the classics to paintings of nymphs, swains, satyrs, and other mostly human legendary creatures frolicking in neatly tended hills and woods in a state of perpetual déshabillé. The pastoral genre is very little used in contemporary times, which is in itself remarkable; here is a whole genre of sexual fantasy that has fallen almost completely out of fashion.

External links

Two Idylls by Theocritus (English)
The Eclogues of Vergil
The complete works of Christopher Marlowe
The Shepheardes Calender by Edmund Spenser

Pastoral can also be used to describe the professional role of the Christian clergy.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Pastoral."

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Synonyms within Context: Pastoral

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Canonicals	Noun: canonicals, vestments; robe, gown, Geneva gown frock, pallium, surplice, cassock, dalmatic, scapulary, cope, mozetta, scarf, tunicle, chasuble, alb, alba, stole; fanon, fannel; tonsure, cowl, hood; calote, calotte; bands; capouch, amice; vagas, vakas, vakass; apron, lawn sleeves, pontificals, pall; miter, tiara, triple crown; shovel hat, cardinal's hat; biretta; crosier; pastoral staff, thurifer; costume.
Churchdom	Adjective: ecclesiastical, ecclesiological; clerical, sacerdotal, priestly, prelatical, pastoral, ministerial, capitular, theocratic; hierarchical, archiepiscopal; episcopal, episcopalian; canonical; monastic, monachal; monkish; abbatial, abbatical; Anglican; pontifical, papal, apostolic, Roman, Popish; ultramontane, priest-ridden.
Husbandry	Adjective: pastoral, bucolic; tame, domestic.
Poetry	Poem; epic, epic poem; epopee, epopoea, ode, epode, idyl, lyric, eclogue, pastoral, bucolic, dithyramb, anacreontic, sonnet, roundelay, rondeau, rondo, madrigal, canzonet, cento, monody, elegy; amoebaeum, ghazal, palinode.
Rite	Ministration; preaching, preachment; predication, sermon, homily, lecture, discourse, pastoral.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Pastoral

English words defined with "pastoral": arcadian ♦ Back blocks, Bergeret, bucolic ♦ Cossack, crosier, crozier ♦ eclogue ♦ Hottentot ♦ Idyl, idyll, idyllic ♦ Khoikhoi, Khoikhoin ♦ Pastoral staff, Pastoral Theology, Pastorally ♦ rustic ♦ Shepherdish, Shepherdism, Shepherdly, sinecure ♦ Thalia, Toda, Tragi-comi-pastoral ♦ Yakoots. (references)

Specialty definitions using "pastoral": Blowzelinda ♦ Chaplaincy Service, Hospital, Chevy Chase, Chlo'e, Colin Clout ♦ Daphnis, Dedan, Doric Reed ♦ Epistles ♦ II Pastor Fido ♦ Josaphat ♦ Marseilles' Good Bishop, May Meetings ♦ Nomads ♦ Pastoral Care, Philisides ♦ Symbols of Saints. (references)

Etymologies containing "pastoral": madrigal ♦ Shepherdly ♦ Tragi-comi-pastoral. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Pastoral" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Albanian (pastoral), French (bucolic, herdsmen, pastoral), German (pastoral), Portuguese (pastoral, pastorate), Romanian (bucolic, pastoral), Spanish (pastoral, Pastorale), Swedish (pastoral, Pastorale), Turkish (arcadian, bucolic, idyllic, pastoral).

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Modern Usage: Pastoral

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	Pastoral (1950)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Pastoral

Domain	Title
Books	Pastoral Medicine: The Collegial Working of Doctors and Priests: Eleven Lectures Delivered in Dornach in September of 1924 (reference) Confirming the Pastoral Call: A Guide to Matching Candidates and Congregations (reference) Creating a Healthier Church: Family Systems Theory, Leadership, and Congregational Life (Creative Pastoral Care and Counseling Series) (reference) Pastoral Care of the Sick: Rites of Anointing and Viaticum [LARGE PRINT] (reference) The Art of Pastoral Conversation-Abington Reprint Library (reference) (more book examples)

Periodicals	American Journal Of Pastoral Counseling (reference) East Asian Pastoral Review (reference) Frontera Pastoral Misionera (reference) Homiletic & Pastoral Review (reference) Jiaomu Qikan = Pastoral Journal (reference) (more periodical examples)

Music	Pastoral Composure (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Consumer Goods	Quoizel October Pastoral Table Lamp, 22" (reference) (more baby examples; more wireless phone examples; more garden examples; more kitchen examples; more tool examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Pastoral

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Photo Album: Pastoral

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Pastoral scene on Guam Volcanic terrain, swaying palms, and water buffalo.Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.		A pastoral scene in central Vermont.Credit: Tim McCabe.
	The pastoral visit.Credit: Library of Congress.		Pastoral / Chang Yang-hsi.Credit: Library of Congress.
	A pastoral visit.Credit: Library of Congress.		Pastoral scene in woods.Credit: Library of Congress.
	Pastoral play, the Oaks, Spring.Credit: Library of Congress.		Frank Burt & Geo. H. Nicolai present a pastoral play, The night before Christmas by Hal Reid.Credit: Library of Congress.
	Tien Shan pastoral.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Use in Literature: Pastoral

Title	Author	Quote
Life, the Universe and Everything	Douglas Adams	It wasn't all the pastoral delights that were making Arthur feel so cheery, though.
Walden	Thoreau, Henry David	The air is filled with the bleating of calves and sheep, and the hustling of oxen, as if a pastoral valley were going by.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Pastoral

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		There are many other obstacles in the way of patients receiving the care they need. There is the lack of linkages between the health care, mental health, and social service systems and the diversity of the professionals staffing these systems--primary care physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, pastoral counselors, etc. There also is the complexity of the systems, with different gates to service, eligibility requirements, funding streams, and methods of payment. (references)
Civil Liberties	Cuba	The document provided suggestions to the Party on how to supercede the pastoral work of the Church, which included providing computer classes, attending to children with Down's Syndrome, distributing medicines in cooperation with doctors who provide written prescriptions for church medical dispensaries, and charitable assistance to the elderly. (references)
	Vietnam	The Government has not allowed officially recognized training of Protestant clergy since 1993. The Roman Catholic Church faces many restrictions on the training of nuns and the training and ordination of priests and bishops, thus limiting pastoral ministry. (references)
	Zambia	A Catholic bishop was heckled by supporters of the President when he read a pastoral letter condemning the third term campaign during a church service. (references)
Economic History	Rwanda	The Tutsis (14%) are a pastoral people who arrived in the area in the 15th century. (references)
	Turkey	Slightly larger than Texas, modern Turkey spans bustling cosmopolitan centers, pastoral farming villages, barren wastelands, peaceful Aegean coastlines, and steep mountain regions. (references)
	Somalia	Its economy is pastoral and agricultural, with livestock--principally camels, cattle, sheep, and goats--representing the main form of wealth. (references)
Human Rights	Brazil	The Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), the country's foremost entity monitoring human rights in rural areas, reported 18 killings of landless activists from January through September. (references)
Indigenous People	Angola	In July the Ministry of Agriculture, in conjunction with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, began fencing off plots of land for pastoral groups in these provinces. (references)
	Angola	There was a lack of adequate laws to protect the rights of traditional pastoral communities of the Ovimbundu, Nanheca, and Ovambu, in the Cunene and Huila provinces as the Government attempted to clarify land titles in the region. (references)
Minorities	Kenya	Members of President Moi's Kalenjin ethnic group (a coalition of nine small ethnic groups) and other traditionally pastoral Nilotic ethnic groups are represented disproportionately and hold key positions in the Government, the ruling KANU party, the GSU, and the Presidential Escort. (references)
	Tanzania	These ethnic groups continued to seek compensation for past government discrimination seeking to make them adopt a more modern lifestyle and to restrict their access to pastoral lands that were turned into large government wheat farms. (references)
Political Economy	Saudi Arabia	The population is approximately 22.1 million with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $7,564. The oil industry has been the basis of the transformation of Saudi Arabia from a pastoral, agricultural, and trading society to a rapidly urbanizing one, characterized by large-scale infrastructure projects, an extensive social welfare system, and a labor market comprised largely of foreign workers. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Pastoral

"Pastoral" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 90.78% of the time. "Pastoral" is used about 434 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
Adjective (general or positive)	90.78%	394	14,131
Noun (singular)	5.99%	26	68,323
Noun (proper)	3.23%	14	93,893
Total	100.00%	434	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Pastoral

Expressions using "pastoral": Pastoral Care ♦ pastoral letter ♦ pastoral poem ♦ pastoral poems ♦ pastoral poetry ♦ pastoral scenery ♦ pastoral staff ♦ pastoral stuaff ♦ pastoral stuff ♦ pastoral Theology. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "pastoral": pastoral-academic, pastoral-agricultural.
	Ending with "pastoral": agro-pastoral, counter-pastoral, dark-pastoral, semi-pastoral, Tragi-comi-pastoral.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Pastoral

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.

Expression	Frequency per Day
pastoral counseling	64
pastoral	54
pastoral care	47
juvenile pastoral	27
familiar pastoral	25
pastoral prayer	23
pastoral poem	22
pastoral counselor	20
pastoral search	20
job pastoral	17
association clinical education pastoral	15
pastoral ministry	14
american association counselor pastoral	14
pastoral theology	12
pastoral leadership	10
musician national pastoral	9
association musician national pastoral	9
pastoral resource	9
american pastoral	8
pastoral robe	8
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Pastoral

Language		Translations for "pastoral"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		pastoral, letër e peshkopit, baritore, baritor (bucolic). (various references)

Arabic		‏كهنوتي (clerical, ministerial, parsonic, priestly, sacerdotal), ‏مسرحية أبطالها من الرعاة, ‏مشهد ريفي, ‏قروي (country, provincial, rural, village), ‏ساذج (artless, credulous, drip, gaga, gimp, green, guileless, gullible, honest, ingenuous, innocent, mug, naive, ninny, oafish, patsy, platitudinous, primitive, provincial, silly, simple, unsophisticated, untutored, unworldly), ‏الرسالة الرعاوية, ‏الشعر الرعوي, ‏ريفي (boorish, bucolic, bumpkin, countrified, countryman, provincial, rural, rustic), ‏رعوي (bucolic), ‏رعاوي, ‏بسيط (attic, chaste, crude, down to earth, elementary, homely, honest, innocent, low-browed, lowly, mere, modest, naive, natural, petty, plain, primitive, provincial, rustic, silly, simple, simple minded, sparing, straightforward, unaffected, unpretentious, unsophisticated, unvarnished, with distortion). (various references)

Bulgarian		свещенически (hieratic, ministerial, priestly, sacerdotal), отнасящ се до духовниците, отправен към духовниците, овчарски (shepherd's), пасторски (ministerial, vicarial), пасторална сцена, пасторален (buckwheat, bucolic), пасторала (musette), пастирски, пасищен. (various references)

Chinese		牧人 (pastor). (various references)

Czech		pastorální, pastýřský list, pastýřský, pastýřská hra. (various references)

Danish		nomadisme med husdyr (pastoral nomadism). (various references)

Dutch		zwerfbeweiding (pastoral nomadism), nomadische beweiding (pastoral nomadism), Landelijk Pastoraal Overleg , Utrecht (National Pastoral Council), Herderlijk schrijven (pastoral letter). (various references)

Finnish		paimenruno. (various references)

French		poésie pastorale, pastorale (pastoral stuaff), pastoral, de pâture, champêtre, bucolique. (various references)

German		pastoral-, pastoral, seelsorgerisch, schäfer-, ländlich (bucolic, countrified, country, folk, rural, rustic, rustically), idyllisch (idyllic, idyllically, quaint, quaintly), bukolisch (bucolic). (various references)

Greek		βουκολικόσ (bucolic), ιερατικόσ (cleric, clerical, hieratic, priest like, priestly, sacerdotal), ποιμενικόσ (bucolic). (various references)

Hebrew		שיר רועים, של �"כמור�" (clerical), פסטורלי, פסטורל�", רועית, רועי. (various references)

Hungarian		pásztori (bucolic), lelkészi. (various references)

Italian		pastorale (bucolic, crosier, Crozier, Pastorale). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		牧歌的 (idyllic), パステル�"� (catcher's error, parsley, passed ball, passport, password, pastel, pathetic, pathetic drama, personal, personal computer, puzzle). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		パストラル , ぼっかてき (idyllic). (various references)

Manx		bochillagh (herd). (various references)

Pig Latin		astoralpay

Portuguese		pastoral (pastorate), variedade de estorninho, composição pastoril, cena pastoril, cena campestre, carta pastoral. (various references)

Romanian		pastoralã (charge, pastoral letter, Pastorale), pastoral (bucolic), pãstoresc (shepherd's), tablou idilic, scenã pastoralã, idilic (arcadian, idyllic, idyllically), idilã (idyl, idyll), de pastor, cu multã iarbã, ciobãnesc (shepherdish, shepherd-like, shepherd's), câmpenesc (country, field, rural, rustic), bun de pãşunat. (various references)

Russian		пастушеский, пасторальный, пастораль (idyl, idyll, pastorale). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		pastoralna pesma, pastoralan (arcadian), pastorala (pastorale), pastirski, idiličan (arcadian, idyllic). (various references)

Spanish		pastoral (Pastorale). (various references)

Swedish		pastoral (Pastorale), herde- (bucolic), biskopsstav (crosier, Crozier). (various references)

Turkish		piskoposlarla ilgili, pastoral resim, pastoral eser, pastoral şiir (bucolic, idyl, idyll), pastoral (arcadian, bucolic, idyllic), kırsal (agrarian, arcadian, countrified, country, rural, rustic), çobanlara ait. (various references)

Ukranian		послання (epistle, letter, proclamation), пастушачий, пасторський, пасторальний (arcadian), пастораль (eclogue, idyl, idyll, oat). (various references)

Vietnamese		kịch đ�"ng quê... thư của mục sư gửi cho con chiên, bức hoạ đ�"ng quê, b� i thơ đ�"ng quê. (various references)

Welsh		bugeiliol. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Pastoral

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	pastoralem, pastoralibus. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Pastoral

Derivations
	Words beginning with "pastoral": pastorale, pastorales, pastorali, pastoralism, pastoralisms, pastoralist, pastoralists, pastorally, pastoralness, pastoralnesses, pastorals. (additional references)
	Words ending with "pastoral": unpastoral. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Pastoral" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Astohall, astoral, epistomal, Pastora, pastorali, Pastorelli, pastorial, Pastorie, Patourel, Pessoal, Pistoia, Plastopan, postcoxal. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Pastoral"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "pastoral" (pronounced pa"sterul)
4	-t er u l	bilateral, collateral, doctoral, electoral, guttural, lateral, literal, littoral, multilateral, pectoral, postdoctoral, sectoral, trilateral, unilateral.
3	-er u l	admiral, agricultural, architectural, behavioral, Corporal, countercultural, cultural, doggerel, ephemeral, federal, femoral, funeral, Gen, general, horticultural, humoral, inaugural, intercultural, liberal, mackerel, mayoral, mineral, multicultural, natural, neoliberal, nomenclatural, nonagricultural, numeral, peripheral, pickerel, prefectural, procedural, scriptural, sculptural, structural, supernatural, temporal, unnatural, visceral.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Pastoral

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-l-o-p-r-s-t"
	-1 letter: alastor, parasol, patrols, portals, tapalos.
	-2 letters: altars, aortal, aortas, astral, parols, pastor, patrol, polars, portal, postal, ratals, sapota, satrap, sporal, talars, tapalo, tarsal, tolars.
	-3 letters: altar, altos, aorta, apart, aport, artal, ataps, atlas, lotas, opals, orals, paras, parol, parts, pasta, plats, plots, polar, ports, praos, prats, proas, prost, ratal, ratos, roast, rotas, rotls, salpa, sapor, solar, splat, sport, sprat, strap, strop, talar, talas, tapas, taros, tarps, tolar, tolas, toras, traps.
	-4 letters: aals, alar, alas, alps, also, alto, alts, arts, atap, atop, laps, lars, last, lats, lops, lost, lota, lots, oars, oast, oats, opal, opts, oral, orts, osar, pals, para, pars, part, past, pats, plat, plot, pols, port, post, pots, prao, prat, proa, pros, raps, rapt, rasp, rato, rats, rota, rotl, rots, salp, salt, slap, slat, slop, slot, soap, soar, sola, sora, sort, spar, spat, spot, star, stoa, stop, tala, taos, tapa, taps, taro, tarp, tars, tola, tops, tora, tors, trap, trop, tsar.
	-5 letters: aal, aas, ala, alp, als, alt, apt, ars, art, asp, lap, lar, las, lat, lop, lot, oar, oat, ops, opt, ora, ors, ort, pal, par, pas, pat, pol, pot, pro, rap, ras, rat, rot, sal, sap, sat, sol, sop, sot, spa, tao, tap, tar, tas, top, tor.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-l-o-p-r-s-t"
	+1 letter: palpators, pastorale, pastorali, pastorals.
	+2 letters: palliators, pastorales, pastorally, portrayals, portulacas, transpolar, unpastoral.
	+3 letters: allopatries, applicators, malapropist, pastoralism, pastoralist, piscatorial, portabellas, postcranial, postmarital.
	+4 letters: aspirational, caprolactams, ergastoplasm, extrapolates, keratoplasty, laparotomies, malapropists, manipulators, parasitology, pastoralisms, pastoralists, pastoralness, phragmoplast, piroplasmata, plasterboard, postprandial, proletarians, proletariats, spectatorial, spermatozoal, supraorbital, transposable, trophallaxes, trophallaxis.
	+5 letters: astrophysical, blepharoplast, coplanarities, ergastoplasms, extrapolators, inspirational, intrapersonal, laparoscopist, malabsorption, paralyzations, parasitologic, parfocalities, perambulators, phragmoplasts, plantocracies, plasterboards, polarizations, postcranially, postinaugural, postlapsarian, procathedrals, proclamations, prostaglandin, protogalaxies, replantations, supernational, supranational, suprarational, transpersonal, transportable.
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.