Robin W. WinksJoseph Epstein
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We hate to drone on, so we’ll give you the TL;DR on pontificate. In ancient Rome, a pontifex (plural pontifices) was a member of an important council of priests. With the rise of Catholicism, the title pontifex was transferred to the Pope and to Catholic bishops. From pontifex, by way of Medieval Latin, comes the English verb pontificate, which in the early 1800s meant “to officiate as a pontiff”—that is, as a bishop or Pope. (Note that the noun pontificate, which refers to the state, office, or term of office of a pontiff had been borrowed directly from Latin in the 15th century.) By the late 1800s, pontificate was also being used derisively for lay individuals who spoke as if they had the authority of a member of the clergy. To this day the word connotes an air of spurious superiority—one might consider this sense of pontificate to be the spiritual forerunner of mansplain.
Examples of pontificate in a Sentence
Daniel Depetris, Chicago Tribune, 4 Mar. 2025
Stearns didn’t even pontificate, between a healthy start by Max Scherzer and a healthy start by Jacob deGrom, about tenths of a percent of World Series odds in 2026 like Billy Eppler did in 2022.
—Tim Britton, The Athletic, 31 July 2024
Timothy Nerozzi, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 28 Feb. 2025
Francis has had two longer hospital stays during his nearly 12-year pontificate.
—Nicole Winfield, Chicago Tribune, 21 Feb. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Pontificate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pontificate. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
pontificate
1 of 2 noun
pontificate
2 of 2 verb
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