temporal
adjectivenounadjectivenounattested in dialogue
- //ˈtɛm.pə.ɹəl//
Of or relating to the material world, as opposed to sacred or clerical.
adjective
- 1
Of or relating to the material world, as opposed to sacred or clerical.
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.
- 2
Relating to time: Of limited time, transient, passing, not perpetual, as opposed to eternal.
The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
- 3
Relating to time: Of limited time, transient, passing, not perpetual, as opposed to eternal. Lasting for a short time only.
- 4
Relating to time: Of or relating to time as distinguished from space.
- 5
Relating to time: Of or relating to the sequence of time or to a particular time.
- 6
Relating to time: Relating to or denoting time or tense.
Etymology
From Middle English temporal, temporel (“transitory, worldly, material, of secular society”), from Old French temporel or Latin temporālis (“of time (in grammar), temporary, relating to time as opposed to eternity”), from tempus (“time, period, opportunity”) + -ālis.
noun
- 1
Anything temporal or secular; a temporality.
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.
adjective
- 1
Of or situated in the temples of the head or the sides of the skull behind the orbits.
Etymology
From Middle English, from Middle French timporal, temporal, from Late Latin temporālis, from tempora (“the temples of the head”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of temporalis.
noun
- 1
Any of a reptile's scales on the side of the head between the parietal and supralabial scales, and behind the postocular scales.
- 2
Variant of temporal boneEllipsis of temporal bone.
Forms
- plural
- temporals
- comparative
- more temporal
- superlative
- most temporal
temporal · Of or relating to the material world, as opposed to sacred or clerical.
temporarily · For a limited period of time; not permanently.temporary · Not permanent; existing only for a period or periods of time.tempt · To provoke someone to do wrong, especially by promising a…