Temporal

/ˈtɛm.pə.ɹəl/ · adjective

Meaning

(relational) Of or relating to the material world, as opposed to sacred or clerical..

Definitions by Sense

1. (relational) Of or relating to the material world, as opposed to sacred or clerical.
2. (relational) Relating to time:
3. (chiefly in the plural) Anything temporal or secular; a temporality.
4. (anatomy, relational) Of or situated in the temples of the head or the sides of the skull behind the orbits.
5. (anatomy) Ellipsis of temporal bone.
6. (zootomy) Any of a reptile's scales on the side of the head between the parietal and supralabial scales, and behind the postocular scales.

Example Sentences

temporal power, temporal courts

The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled

The [papal] train was in use until 1871, when the Pope [Pius IX] lost his temporal power.

Not long before, he had ruefully acknowledged in a letter to his pious mother that most of his appointments to the bench of bishops had been motivated by distinctly temporal impulses.

for God's people love always to be dealing as well in temporals as spirituals

He assigns supremacy to the pope in spirituals, and to the emperor in temporals.

Synonyms for temporal

Antonyms for temporal

Related Words

Word Forms

• more temporal
• most temporal
• temporals

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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