papacy
/ˈpeɪ.pə.si/noun
papacy is spelled P-A-P-A-C-Y: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,214th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, papacy means “The office of a pope” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of papacy is papacies.
How many letters and syllables are in papacy?
| Letters | 6: P-A-P-A-C-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.0 times per million words; the 28,214th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is papacy?
Papacy appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,214th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce papacy?
- /ˈpeɪ.pə.si/
Papacy has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-papacy.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of papacy
- papacies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does papacy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The office of a pope.
- 2
The office of the pope of Rome, who is the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Vatican defends the primacy of the papacy.
- 3
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.
- 4
derogatoryRoman Catholicism generally: synonym of popery.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Papacy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | papauté |
| German | Papstamt , Pontifikat |
| Portuguese | papado |
| Spanish | papado |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does papacy come from?
Circa 14th century, from Middle English papacie, papassie, from Medieval Latin pāpātia, from Latin pāpa (“pope”) + -tia (“office, rank”) (English -cy).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).