What does "pallium" mean?

A large cloak worn by Greek philosophers and teachers.

Pallium

Common synonyms include: cape, cerebellum, cerebral cortex, cerebral cortex, cerebral mantle, cerebrum.

//ˈpæ.li.əm// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Noun

1
A large cloak worn by Greek philosophers and teachers. historical
2
cloak or mantle worn by men in ancient Rome wordnet
3
A woolen liturgical vestment resembling a collar and worn over the chasuble in the Western Christian liturgical tradition, conferred on archbishops by the Pope, equivalent to the Eastern Christian omophorion.
"Tut, tut, I have absolved thee: dost thou scorn me, / Because I had my Canterbury pallium / From one whom they dispoped?"
4
(Roman Catholic Church) vestment consisting of a band encircling the shoulders with two lappets hanging in front and back wordnet
5
The mantle of a mollusc.

Show 5 more definitions

6
(zoology) a protective layer of epidermis in mollusks or brachiopods that secretes a substance forming the shell wordnet
7
The cerebral cortex.
8
the layer of unmyelinated neurons (the grey matter) forming the cortex of the cerebrum wordnet
9
A presumed gelatinous envelope of diatoms.
10
A sheet of cloud covering the whole sky, especially nimbostratus. obsolete

"Tut, tut, I have absolved thee: dost thou scorn me, / Because I had my Canterbury pallium / From one whom they dispoped?"

Borrowed from Latin pallium (“a cloak”). Doublet of pall.

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