pontiff

American  

[pon-tif] / ˈpɒn tɪf /

noun

1. any pontifex.

2. any high or chief priest.

3. Ecclesiastical.

   1. a bishop.

   2. the Roman Catholic pope, the Bishop of Rome.

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pontiff British  

/ ˈpɒntɪf /

noun

1. a former title of the pagan high priest at Rome, later used of popes and occasionally of other bishops, and now confined exclusively to the pope

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pontiff Cultural  

1. Another name for the pope. Pontiff comes from a Latin word, meaning “bridge builder,” that was used as a title for some of the priests of ancient Rome.

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Etymology

Origin of pontiff

1600–10; earlier pontife < French, short for Latin pontifex pontifex

Explanation

In Catholicism, the pontiff is the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic church. When the pontiff visits a city, thousands of people come out to watch his motorcade go by. In ancient Rome, a pontiff was one of many high-ranking religious authorities — in fact, there was a whole group of them, known collectively as the College of Pontiffs. Today, it's strictly accurate to call any Catholic bishop a pontiff, but the vast majority of Catholics reserve the word for the Bishop of Rome, otherwise known as the Pope. The word means "high priest," from a root meaning "bridge-maker."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pontiff

In 1964, Paul VI inaugurated the traveling papacy when he became the first pontiff to leave Italy since Pius VII was carted off to France at gunpoint by Napoleon Bonaparte’s soldiers in 1809.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Aboard the popemobile, the smiling pontiff blessed several babies and waved to worshippers, as he made his way from the Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concorde, where a giant white canopy was installed.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

Crowds cheered as the pontiff moved down the Champs-Élysées Avenue beneath the Arc de Triomphe, waving to crowds from his popemobile.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

Soon she was sending videos of the pontiff to her tearful grandparents in Brittany.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

People aren’t ordinarily carried in chairs in New Hampshire, and as they raised him up he looked very strange to me, like some tragic and exalted personage, a stricken pontiff.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

Related Words

• pope