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• pope
  pope

  noun

  the bishop of Rome as head of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Pope
  Pope

  noun

  Alexander, 1688–1744, English poet.
• Popé
  Popé

  noun

  died 1690?, Pueblo medicine man: led rebellion against the Spanish 1680.

pope

¹ American  

[pohp] / poʊp /

noun

• popes
  plural

1. (often initial capital letter) the bishop of Rome as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

2. (in the early Christian church) a bishop.

3. a person considered as having or assuming authority or a position similar to that of the Roman Catholic pope.

4. the title of the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria.

5. Eastern Church.

   1. the Orthodox patriarch of Alexandria.

   2. (in certain churches) a parish priest.

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Pope ² American  

[pohp] / poʊp /

noun

1. Alexander, 1688–1744, English poet.

2. John, 1822–92, Union general in the U.S. Civil War.

3. John Russell, 1874–1937, U.S. architect.

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Popé ³ American  

[poh-pey] / poʊˈpeɪ /

noun

1. died 1690?, Pueblo medicine man: led rebellion against the Spanish 1680.

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Pope ¹ British  

/ pəʊp /

noun

1. Alexander. 1688–1744, English poet, regarded as the most brilliant satirist of the Augustan period, esp with his Imitations of Horace (1733–38). His technical virtuosity is most evident in The Rape of the Lock (1712–14). Other works include The Dunciad (1728; 1742), the Moral Essays (1731–35), and An Essay on Man (1733–34)

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pope ² British  

/ pəʊp /

noun

1. (often capital) the bishop of Rome as head of the Roman Catholic Church

2. Eastern Orthodox Church

   1. a title sometimes given to a parish priest

   2. a title sometimes given to the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Alexandria

3. a person assuming or having a status or authority resembling that of a pope

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pope ³ British  

/ pəʊp /

noun

1. another name for ruffe

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pope Cultural  

1. The head of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope is believed by his church to be the successor to the Apostle Peter. He is bishop of Rome and lives in a tiny nation within Rome called the Vatican. Catholics believe that when the pope speaks officially on matters of faith and morals, he speaks infallibly (see papal infallibility). (See also John XXIII and John Paul II.)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• popeless
  adjective
• popelike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• popes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pope

before 900; Middle English; Old English pāpa < Late Latin: bishop, pope < Late Greek pápas bishop, priest, variant of páppas father; see papa

Explanation

A pope is the head of the Catholic Church. The official title of a pope is the bishop of Rome. When you refer to a specific pope, the word is capitalized, as in Pope Francis. Each pope is considered to be a successor to the Biblical apostle Saint Peter, and each is elected by a group of Catholic cardinals to be the highest religious authority. Pope is from the Old English papa and derives from the Greek papas, which means "patriarch, bishop, or father."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pope Pope Popé popes

Last year, Willey met his fifth pope - the newly elected Pope Leo.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

“Don’t do this, let’s try to live the communion of the Church,” the pope said last month, adding that “division among Christians is a painful point.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

Even the pope is dropping hot takes on the topic, decrying the “new forms of slavery” that AI threatens us with.

From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026

From Tenerife, the pope will fly to Rome and is expected to speak to reporters on the plane.

From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026

“You get more coverage than the president, the pope, and the queen of England put together. All good stuff.”

From "Linked" by Gordon Korman

Surrey duo Ollie Pope and Dan Lawrence have been recalled to the England squad for the first two Tests against Pakistan.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

They made frantic repairs to the walls as the bombardment continued and looked hopefully for the rumored relief fleets that the Venetians and Pope Nicholas V were preparing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

Frank Pope, CEO of conservation organisation Save the Elephants, told the BBC the pressure on Amboseli's elephants isn't ivory anymore.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

David Pope, a pharmacist who voted affirmatively for other peptides, voted “no” on this one, citing a complex regimen and “potentially dangerous downstream consequences.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

“Horrid!” sobbed Miss Pope, and then ceased crying.

From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury

Pueblo Indians mounted one rebellion after another, as did Indigenous peoples elsewhere in Spanish-occupied lands, but it took a visionary shaman named Popé to orchestrate the mother of all revolts.

From New York Times ● Sep. 27, 2020

So Popé sent long-distance runners hundreds of miles to Pueblos around the province with knotted cords of what is thought to be yucca or perhaps strips of deer hide.

From New York Times ● Sep. 27, 2020

One of these, a young man named Popé, struck back by organizing a rebellion in the summer of 1680, soon after Bacon’s Rebellion and Metacom’s War in the far-distant English colonies.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018

Pueblo leader Popé demanded a return to native ways so the hardships his people faced would end.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 30, 2014

Popé was in the midst of it all, riding like an incarnate fury on horseback wearing a bull's horn in the middle of his forehead.

From Through Our Unknown Southwest by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)

He became an authority on the papacies of five popes - One of his most notable assignments was the assassination attempt on John Paul II in 1981.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

He reported from Algeria, Vietnam and China, but is best known for his time in Rome as the BBC's Vatican correspondent, where he covered the papacies of five popes.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

For centuries, a shimmering golden fabric known as sea silk was one of the world's most exclusive luxury materials, reserved for emperors, popes, and other powerful figures.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 12, 2026

Leo XIV tossed away the diplomatic tact usually required of popes as he began a state visit to Spain on Saturday, revealing that his footballing loyalties lie with Real Madrid.

From Barron's ● Jun. 6, 2026

Then Alexander VI came to power, and he, more than any of the popes who ever reigned, demonstrated how well a pope could succeed with money and his own troops.

From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

Related Words

• pontiff