papacy

American  

[pey-puh-see] / ˈpeɪ pə si /

noun

Roman Catholic Church.

• papacies
  plural

1. the office, dignity, or jurisdiction of the pope.

2. the system of ecclesiastical government in which the pope is recognized as the supreme head.

3. the period during which a certain pope is in office.

4. the succession or line of the popes.

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papacy British  

/ ˈpeɪpəsɪ /

noun

1. the office or term of office of a pope

2. the system of government in the Roman Catholic Church that has the pope as its head

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papacy Cultural  

1. The office or position of the pope.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• antipapacy
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• papacies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of papacy

1350–1400; Middle English papacie < Medieval Latin pāpātia. See pope, -acy

Explanation

Use the noun papacy when you're talking about the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the particular authority he holds. The papacy supports reducing poverty, but it does not support women becoming priests. The pope is the head of the Catholic Church in Rome, and his office or government is the papacy. You can use the word for official positions the church holds, or to talk about the history of a pope's term. For example, you might say, "The papacy of Pope Benedict XVI ended when he resigned." The root of papacy is the Latin papatia, "papal office," which comes from papa, or "pope."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

papacy papacies

He said: "Harold's policy on the papacy may ultimately have played into the hands of his enemies, giving William's opportunistic invasion the legitimacy of a just war."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

The Chicago-born pontiff has made the defence of migrants one of the pillars of his papacy, like his predecessor, Francis, praising those who help the needy and decrying mass deportations in the United States.

From Barron's ● Jul. 4, 2026

Pope Leo has presented the first major teaching document of his papacy, warning that artificial intelligence needs to be "disarmed".

From BBC ● May 25, 2026

His reign overlapped with the papacy of Hadrian I, which lasted from 772 to 795.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026

They kept the papacy weak and unstable, standing with their weapons in hand right under the eyes of the Pope.

From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

As a child, he knew the names of all the popes and the dates of their papacies, as well as the names and pertinent dates of England’s kings and queens.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026

There’s no satisfactory answer to that, although it’s fair to say that the papacies of Francis and Leo represent the first serious efforts to reckon with those more recent crimes.

From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2026

Their papacies were in the era of the Roman Empire, which stretched across modern-day Tunisia, the north-east of Algeria and the coast of western Libya.

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2025

They would do well to remember, however, that most of the polling data collected during the previous two papacies strongly indicated that American Catholics are not shy about deviating from Rome when it suited them.

From US News ● Sep. 28, 2015

He was secretary to the Vatican library during the papacies of Paul the second and Sixtus the fourth.

From The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 05 Miscellaneous Pieces by Samuel Johnson

Related Words

• pontiff