doctrinal

[ dok-truh-nl; British also dok-trahyn-l ]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or concerned with doctrine:

   a doctrinal dispute.

Other Words From

• doctri·nali·ty noun
• doctri·nal·ly adverb
• non·doctri·nal adjective
• non·doctri·nal·ly adverb
• un·doctri·nal adjective
• un·doctri·nal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of doctrinal¹

1400–50; late Middle English < Late Latin doctrīnālis, equivalent to Latin doctrīn ( a ) ( doctrine ) + -ālis -al ¹

Example Sentences

Once again, originalism provided the best justification for the Court’s doctrinal about-face, though then-Chief Justice Earl Warren’s opinion muted this fact, which became clear only in retrospect.

From Time

There’s also doctrinal rituals about how people engage in costly sacrifice.

From Nautilus

To create larger imagined communities, there are doctrinal rituals where you get a group of people who repeat the same thing.

From Nautilus

The resulting affair mixed the doctrinal with the sensational: It was part Jonathan Edwards, part Nancy Grace.

From The Daily Beast

Among the religious parties doctrinal and ethnic differences are sharp.

From The Daily Beast

Later generations of medieval copyists would do the same—inserting doctrinal formulae into the mouths of expiring martyrs.

From The Daily Beast

“Mystical experiences in general do not follow doctrinal precepts,” Bush says.

From The Daily Beast

Now, I gather that adherence to this literal view, held by Joseph Smith, is not for Mormons today a doctrinal matter.

From The Daily Beast

(b) It has a religious mission and a doctrinal propaganda—which has also been invariably denied.

From Project Gutenberg

It is the misery of doctrinal Church standards that they necessarily rule so much of a man's thinking.

From Project Gutenberg

To say the truth, there lay at the bottom of her doctrinal system this stable corner-stone,Mr. Scudder used to believe it,I will.

From Project Gutenberg

The argumentative force of the passage being admitted, its doctrinal import deserves attention.

From Project Gutenberg

But before he follows up his doctrinal discourse with practical precepts he once more reproves the Galatians.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• classic
• classical
• common
• conventional
• historic
• long-established
• old
• popular
• regular
• time-honored
• universal