temporal — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the material world, as opposed to sacred or clerical.

   Usage

   • not-comparable
   • relational
   • usually

   Synonyms

   secularlaycivilworldly

   Antonyms

   spiritualecclesiastical

   Examples

   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

   More examples (2)

   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.

   Usage

   • not-comparable
   • relational
   • usually

   Examples

   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.

   Usage

   • euphemistic
   • not-comparable
   • relational
   • usually

4. Relating to time: Of or relating to time as distinguished from space.

   Usage

   • not-comparable
   • relational
   • usually

5. Relating to time: Of or relating to the sequence of time or to a particular time.

   Usage

   • not-comparable
   • relational
   • usually

   Synonyms

   chronological

6. Relating to time: Relating to or denoting time or tense.

   Usage

   • not-comparable
   • relational
   • usually

Noun

1. Anything temporal or secular; a temporality.

   Usage

   • in-plural

   Examples

   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.

   Usage

   • not-comparable
   • relational

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.

Adjective

1. not eternal

2. of or relating to or limited by time

   Examples

   temporal processing

   temporal dimensions

   More examples (2)

   temporal and spacial boundaries

   music is a temporal art

3. of or relating to the temples (the sides of the skull behind the orbit)

   Examples

   temporal bone

4. characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world

   Synonyms

   worldlysecular

   Examples

   worldly goods and advancement

   temporal possessions of the church

5. of this earth or world

   Examples

   temporal joys

   our temporal existence

Noun

1. the semantic role of the noun phrase that designates the time of the state or action denoted by the verb

   Synonyms

   temporal role

   Broader terms

   semantic roleparticipant role