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Pontifical vs Gracile - What's the difference?

pontifical | gracile |

As adjectives the difference between pontifical and gracile

is that pontifical is of or pertaining to a pontiff while gracile is slender; thin; lean.

As a noun pontifical

is a book containing the offices, or formulas, used by a pontiff.

pontifical

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of or pertaining to a pontiff.
  • # Of or pertaining to a bishop; episcopal.
  • # Of or pertaining to a pope; papal.
  • Pompous, dignified or dogmatic.
  • Of or pertaining to the pontifices of Ancient Rome.
  • Of or relating to the building of bridges.
  • * Milton
  • Now had they brought the work by wondrous art / Pontifical , a ridge of pendent rock / Over the vexed abyss.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A book containing the offices, or formulas, used by a pontiff.
  • * 1995 , Richard A. Jackson, Ordines coronationis Franciae: texts and ordines for the coronation of Frankish and French kings and queens in the Middle Ages , page 30:
  • Both ordines are related to an ordo in a pontifical in Reims, the Ordo of 1200 (Ordo XIX). The latter was to be consulted again and again, and its formulas were to have a marked effect upon the French ceremony;
  • * 2001 , Leon F. Strieder, The Promise of Obedience: A Ritual History , page 32:
  • William Durandus, bishop of Mende in the south of France, compiled a pontifical' in three books. William never intended his work to be a universal ' pontifical , but its clarity of arrangement and quality of substance, along with

    Usage notes

    The plural, pontificals , refers to "the vestments of a bishop". ----

    gracile

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Slender; thin; lean.
  • * 1853 , Works of Walter Savage Landor:
  • *:Unswathe his Egyptian mummy; and ... you disclose the grave features and gracile bones of ... a cat
  • * 1971 , :
  • *:Gracile ... By some recent writers misused (through association with grace ) for "Gracefully slender":
  • * 2005 , , The Ancestor's Tale :
  • They seem to have evolved from more ‘gracile'’ apes (' gracile being the opposite of robust).
  • * 2009 , Clive Finlayson, Neanderthals and Modern Humans :
  • A more gracile morphology would have been far more efficient over larger areas.
  • Graceful or gracefully slender.
  • Derived terms

    * gracility

    Anagrams

    * ----