papacy

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

• enPR: pāʹ-pə-sē, IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪ.pə.si/
• Rhymes: -eɪpəsi

papacy (countable and uncountable, plural papacies)

1. The office of the pope.

   The papacy represents the head of the Catholic Church.

2. The period of a particular pope's reign.

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

3. Roman Catholicism generally.

• antipapacy
• caesaropapacy

• papal
• papist
• pope
• popish

• Roman Catholicism