Papacy

//ˈpeɪ.pə.si// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The office of a pope. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    the government of the Roman Catholic Church wordnet
  3. 3
    The office of a pope.; The office of the pope of Rome, who is the head of the Roman Catholic Church. countable, uncountable, usually

    "The Vatican defends the primacy of the papacy."

  4. 4
    The period of a particular pope's reign. countable, uncountable

    "The papacy of John Paul II ended in 2005, after the pope's long battle with illness ended."

  5. 5
    Roman Catholicism generally: synonym of popery. countable, derogatory, often, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
aedileshipapostolic seearchbishopricarchiepiscopacyarchiepiscopatearistocracy

Example

More examples

"During the Renaissance, the seat of the Papacy moved briefly to Avignon before moving back to Rome."

Etymology

Circa 14th century, from Middle English papacie, papassie, from Medieval Latin pāpātia, from Latin pāpa (“pope”) + -tia (“office, rank”) (English -cy).

Related phrases

roman catholicism

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