pontificate
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
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to perform the office or duties of a pontiff.
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to speak in a pompous or dogmatic manner.
Did he pontificate about the responsibilities of a good citizen?
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to serve as a bishop, especially in a Pontifical Mass.
verb
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Also (less commonly): pontify. to speak or behave in a pompous or dogmatic manner
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to serve or officiate as a pontiff, esp in celebrating a Pontifical Mass
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pontificatesimple
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pontificatessimple
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have pontificatedperfect
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has pontificatedperfect
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am pontificatingprogressive
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are pontificatingprogressive
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is pontificatingprogressive
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have been pontificatingperfect progressive
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has been pontificatingperfect progressive
Past
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pontificatedsimple
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had pontificatedperfect
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was pontificatingprogressive
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were pontificatingprogressive
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had been pontificatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pontificate
First recorded in 1400–50. The noun is from Latin pontificātus, derivative of pontific- (stem of pontifex ) + -ātus noun suffix denoting office or function; see origin at pontifex, -ate 3. The verb is from Medieval Latin pontificātus, past participle of pontificāre “to be an ecclesiastic”; -ate 1
Explanation
To pontificate is to talk in a dogmatic and pompous manner. To pontificate properly, you need to be a know-it-all with very strong opinions and the urge to share them. Pontificate comes from the French word pontiff, another word for the Pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. As a verb (pronounced pon-TIF-i-kate), it meant "to perform the functions of the Pope or other high official in the Church." The noun pontificate (pronounced pon-TIF-i-kit) refers to the government of the Roman Catholic Church. Another word for this is the papacy.
Vocabulary lists containing pontificate
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
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The Night Circus
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Scythe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The 70-year-old pope, born as Robert Prevost in Chicago and known for most of his life as “Bob,” has had a quiet start to his pontificate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 21, 2026
And as Mother Russia Mr. Turner is uproariously funny, interrupting the proceedings to rant and pontificate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
Pope Leo XIV held the first Christmas mass of his pontificate on Wednesday, greeting thousands of faithful in St Peter's Square before the service in an usually informal style.
From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025
A single, white rose was pictured lying on the stone tomb that bears the name he was known by during his pontificate, below a crucifix illuminated by a single spotlight.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2025
They pontificate upon the fluffiness of the popcorn, the sweetness of the chocolate.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Francis has reigned longer than the 7.5 years average length of the previous 265 pontificates.
From Reuters ● Jun. 7, 2023
When Dudamel pontificates about music’s ability to unify communities and heal the soul, his voice comes through with pitch-perfect emotion.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 13, 2022
“For someone who pontificates to be undyingly pro woman, I am disgusted by your behavior and find it appalling you couldn’t understand why their parents are angry,” Matthews wrote.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 22, 2022
“For someone who pontificates to be undyingly pro woman, I am disgusted by your behavior and find it appalling you couldn’t understand why their parents are angry,” Ms. Matthews wrote.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2022
Like a preacher, he pontificates his own peculiar brand of wisdom.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
In 2009, Christine Smallwood wrote an article for The Baffler in which she pontificated as to what the internet would look like, if it were made physical.
From Salon ● Jun. 8, 2026
On Monday’s episode of The View, co-host Whoopi Goldberg pontificated on the matter for an entire segment, reading from Van der Velden’s apology before going in for the takedown.
From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2025
I listened where before I might only have pontificated.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2025
Some recalled tales from the Cannes Film Festival; others debated the merits of different artificial intelligence platforms and pontificated on the future of “wearable AI.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2023
He pontificated and vaticinated from his retreat in the rue Saint-Sulpice, haranguing the reader with an apocalyptic language partaking in spots of the bitterness of an Isaiah.
From Against the Grain by Huysmans, J.-K. (Joris-Karl)
Rebecca Nagle: The part we all know is the part where Thomas Jefferson is pontificating about these enlightenment ideals.
From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2026
Carpenter plucks Cricket from arts college and its meaningless pontificating to his “atelier in the corn,” a ramshackle Victorian where Cricket learns how to transmute what he sees with color and light.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
The White House, in response to those remarks, said Madden should “stick to pontificating about pump-and-dump fraud schemes instead of international trade,” as MarketWatch reported last year.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 25, 2026
Three generations of Mackeys didn’t sit around pontificating about structures of power and revolution.
From Seattle Times ● May 6, 2023
“After all of your pontificating about the contortionist?”
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
