Pontificate

Definition: Pontificate

Pontificate

Noun

1. The government of the Roman Catholic Church.

Verb

1. Administer a pontifical office.

2. Talk in a dogmatic and pompous manner; "The new professor always pontificates".

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

Synonym: Pontificate

Synonym: papacy (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Churchdom	Pontificate, primacy, archbishopric, archiepiscopacy; prelacy; bishopric, bishopdom; episcopate, episcopacy; see, diocese; deanery, stall; canonry, canonicate; prebend, prebendaryship; benefice, incumbency, glebe, advowson, living, cure; rectorship; vicariate, vicarship; deaconry, deaconship; curacy; chaplain, chaplaincy, chaplainship; cardinalate, cardinalship; abbacy, presbytery.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Title
Books	Clement VI : The Pontificate and Ideas of an Avignon Pope (reference) Life and Pontificate of Pope Leo the Tenth (reference) Papal Government and England During the Pontificate of Honorius III (1216-1227) (reference) The Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Pontificate" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 77.78% of the time. "Pontificate" is used about 72 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)	77.78%	56	45,296
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	22.22%	16	87,710
Total	100.00%	72	N/A

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 "pontificate"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Arabic		‏منصب ومدة الحبر, ‏قام بقداس حبري, ‏تكلم على طريقة الأساقفة. (various references)

Bulgarian		смятам се за непогрешим, сан на епископ, сан на папа, служа в епископски ритуал, говоря с авторитет, говоря надуто (pontify), времетраене на длъжност на папа, длъжност на епископ, длъжност на папа. (various references)

Czech		pontifikát. (various references)

Farsi		فضل فروشی کردن , امامت , اسقفی کردن , دوره یامقام اسقفی یاپاپی یاکهانت . (various references)

French		pontifier, pontificat. (various references)

German		pontifikat, pontifikalamt halten, dozieren. (various references)

Hebrew		ל� �"ו�' ב�"ו�'מטיות. (various references)

Hungarian		főpapi méltóság. (various references)

Italian		pontificato, pontificare. (various references)

Manx		oik paabagh, loayrt myr paab (pontification). (various references)

Pig Latin		ontificatepay

Portuguese		pontifical (papal). (various references)

Romanian		fi în funcţia de pontif. (various references)

Russian		служить службу/ .понтификат, понтификат, первосвященство. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		pontifikat, služba biskupa, episkopat (episcopate). (various references)

Spanish		pontificado (papacy, popedom). (various references)

Swedish		docera (dogmatise, dogmatize). (various references)

Turkish		papalık sıfatı ile katılmak (pontify), papalık (papacy, popedom, see), tumturaklı konuşmak (pontify, spout), başpiskoposluk (archbishopric, archiepiscopate, primacy), başkanlık etmek (be in the chair, chair, moderate, pontify, preside, take the chair), ahkâm kesmek (dogmatize, pontify, talk through one's hat). (various references)

Ukrainian		відправляти службу, первосвященство. (various references)

Vietnamese		nhiệm kỳ của giáo ho� ng chức giáo chủ, nhiệm kỳ của giáo chủ, nhiệm kỳ của giám mục, chức giáo ho� ng (popedom), chức giám mục (episcopate). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "pontificate": pontificated, pontificates. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Pontificate" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ponticifate, pontifficate, pontificat, pontificatie, Pontificiae, pontifikate, pontrificate, potificate, puntificate. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "pontificate" (pronounced pÄnti"fukā't)
5	-f u k ā' t	suffocate.
4	-u k ā' t	abdicate, allocate, aluminosilicate, authenticate, communicate, complicate, dedicate, deprecate, domesticate, educate, equivocate, eradicate, excommunicate, extricate, fabricate, indicate, intoxicate, misallocate, predicate, prognosticate, reciprocate, rededicate, reeducate, replicate.
3	-k ā' t	adjudicate, bifurcate, cheapskate, confiscate, implicate, inculcate, locate, lubricate, medicate, obfuscate, prefabricate, sophisticate, truncate.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-e-f-i-i-n-o-p-t-t"
	-1 letter: antipoetic.
	-3 letters: citation, confetti, fetation, optician, petition, pittance, pontific, taconite.
	-4 letters: aconite, antipot, apnoeic, caption, ectopia, entopic, epinaoi, faction, fiction, nepotic, nictate, paction, patient, picante, taction, tetanic, titanic, tonetic.
	-5 letters: acetin, action, aeonic, apneic, atonic, atopic, capote, cation, catnip, cattie, centai, confit, cottae, enatic, fatten, fiance, finite, incept, incite, infect, intact, noetic, notate, notice.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-e-f-i-i-n-o-p-t-t"
	+1 letter: petrifaction, pontificated, pontificates.
	+2 letters: petrifactions, petrification.
	+3 letters: petrifications, prettification.
	+4 letters: prenotification, prettifications.
	+5 letters: precertification, prenotifications.
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.