Camerlengo

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The cardinal who administers the Roman Catholic Church in the interregnum between Popes.

    "Benedict will also stop using the so-called fisherman’s ring to seal documents. It will be destroyed by the cardinal camerlengo, the acting head of state of Vatican City during the “sede vacante,” the canon law term used when the papacy is vacant."

Example

More examples

"Benedict will also stop using the so-called fisherman’s ring to seal documents. It will be destroyed by the cardinal camerlengo, the acting head of state of Vatican City during the “sede vacante,” the canon law term used when the papacy is vacant."

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian camerlengo (“chamberlain”). Doublet of chamberlain.

Related phrases

roman catholic church

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.