papacy

noun/ˈpeɪpəsi/

Frequency rank: #12,811 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

The office, authority, or tenure of the Pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Illustration for the English word “papacy”

Example sentence

The historian wrote about how the papacy shaped European politics during the Middle Ages.

Synonyms & related words

  • pontificate
  • papalism

More words in ranks 12,801–12,900