papal

UK/ˈpeɪpəl/US/ˈpeɪpəl/

adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,429 of 15,258leans written

Papal means to do with the head of the Roman Catholic Church. A papal visit.

It covers everything from a document to a state visit, and the adjective is used far more than the noun. A papal encyclical is a letter to the whole church and is named from its first two words in Latin.

Definitions of papal

1adjectivepapalTo do with the head of the Roman Catholic Church.C1
“The papal visit closed half the city for two days.”

papal is a quality.

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin papalis comes from papa, a father, which is the title of the pope.

Proto-Indo-European
*peh₂-
Medieval Latin
pāpālis — papal
Old French
papal
Middle English
papal
English, today
papal

From Middle English papal, from Old French papal and Medieval Latin pāpālis (“papal”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

papal in the wild

By virtue of the doctrines of Petrine and papal primacy, it is the focal point of full communion for Catholics around the world.
Holy See
During the early modern period, the papal territory expanded greatly, and the pope became one of Italy's most important rulers as well as the head of Western Christianity.
Papal States
A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church.
Papal bull
Apostolic constitutions are issued as papal bulls because of their solemn, public form.
Apostolic constitution
Both the head of the Catholic Church, usually known as the pope, and the pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (Coptic pope) choose papal names.
Papal name

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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