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pope

/poʊp/noun, verb

pope is spelled P-O-P-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 24 times per million words in written English, the 3,752nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, pope means “An honorary title of the Roman Catholic bishop of Rome as father and head of his church, a sovereign of the Vatican city state” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pope is popes.

How many letters and syllables are in pope?

Letters4: P-O-P-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing24 times per million words; the 3,752nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is pope?

Pope appears 24 times per million words in written English, the 3,752nd 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 pope?

  • UK /pəʊp/
  • US /poʊp/
  • Australia /pəʉp/

Pope has one syllable (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: En-us-pope.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with pope

Also written: pop.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with pope?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pope from its last stressed vowel (/oʊp/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: pepo.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of pope

  • popes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • poping participle, present
  • poped participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does pope mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An honorary title of the Roman Catholic bishop of Rome as father and head of his church, a sovereign of the Vatican city state.

    Þa wæs in þa tid Uitalius papa þæs apostolican seðles aldorbiscop.

  2. 2

    Any similarly absolute and 'infallible' authority.

    Burne-Jones... accepted him [Dante Gabriel Rossetti] as the infallible Pope of Art.

  3. 3

    Any similar head of a religion.

    In þat yle dwelleth the Pope of hire lawe, þat þei clepen lobassy.

  4. 4

    A theocrat, a priest-king, including (at first especially) over the imaginary land of Prester John or (now) in figurative and alliterative uses.

    Eche day there etyn in his court xii erchebeshopis and xx bishopis, and the patriak of Seynt Thomays is as here pope.

  5. 5

    UKAn effigy of the pope traditionally burnt in Britain on Guy Fawkes' Day and (occasionally) at other times.

  6. 6

    USobsoletePope Day, the present Guy Fawkes Day.

  7. 7

    An honorary title of the Coptic bishop of Alexandria as father and head of his church.

  8. 8

    An honorary title of the Orthodox bishop of Alexandria as father and head of his autocephalous church.

  9. 9

    Any mulled wine (traditionally including tokay) considered similar and superior to bishop.

    Many of these hot drinks have clerical names–Bishop being a type of mulled port, Cardinal using claret, and Pope Champagne.

  10. 10

    Alternative form of pop, a Russian Orthodox priest.

    In the non-Roman rites diocesan priests are often referred to as popes.

  11. 11

    USobsoleteThe whippoorwill (Antrostomus vociferus, syn. Caprimulgus vociferus).

  12. 12

    USrareThe nighthawk (Chordeiles minor).

verb

  1. 1

    To act as or like a pope.

  2. 2

    colloquialTo convert to Roman Catholicism.

noun

as Pope
  1. 1

    Alternative letter-case form of pope.

    For quotations using this term, see Citations:Pope.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Pope in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpape, papesse (head of the Roman Catholic Church), pope (Russian Orthodox priest)
GermanPapst, Päpstin (head of the Roman Catholic Church)
Portuguesepapa, papisa (head of the Roman Catholic Church), pope (Russian Orthodox priest)
SpanishPapa, papa, vicediós, vicecristo (head of the Roman Catholic Church)

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 pope come from?

From Middle English pope, popa, from Old English pāpa, from Vulgar Latin papa (title for priests and bishops, esp. and by 8th c. only the bishop of Rome), from early Byzantine Greek παπᾶς (papâs, title for priests and bishops, especially by 3rd c. the bishop of Alexandria), from late Ancient Greek πάπας (pápas, title for priests and bishops, in the sense of spiritual father), from πάππας (páppas, “papa, daddy”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after pope