pontificate

Aged 70 and in good physical shape, he could have a long pontificate ahead of him.

From Barron's ● May 6, 2026

The 70-year-old pope, born as Robert Prevost in Chicago and known for most of his life as “Bob,” has had a quiet start to his pontificate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 21, 2026

ISTANBUL—After a low-profile start to his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV is stepping into the limelight.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025

"Over the next few days we'll be learning more and more about it – the first week of the pontificate is a constant revelation."

From BBC ● May 9, 2025

They pontificate upon the fluffiness of the popcorn, the sweetness of the chocolate.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

With his 10 years as pontiff, Francis has now reigned longer than the 7.5 years average length of the previous 265 pontificates.

From Reuters ● Mar. 13, 2023

Francis told Gaenswein to stop coming to the office and to dedicate himself to caring for Benedict, essentially ending his job as the “bridge” between the pontificates.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 9, 2023

Those allegations, which the Vatican disputes, remain unproven, and the timing of Mr. McCarrick’s ascent through the hierarchy coincided with the pontificates of Pope Francis’ predecessors, Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II.

From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2019

Alas, while the singer pontificates, the poet is consigned to paraphrase; Énard has sidelined the very real and interesting Mesihi, and the novel suffers for it.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 19, 2018

The captain stands behind me at the helm, and pontificates to his congregation of one.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

On Monday’s episode of The View, co-host Whoopi Goldberg pontificated on the matter for an entire segment, reading from Van der Velden’s apology before going in for the takedown.

From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2025

I listened where before I might only have pontificated.

From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2025

He pontificated, and they filed down that sharpness respectfully.

From Salon ● Mar. 4, 2024

Some recalled tales from the Cannes Film Festival; others debated the merits of different artificial intelligence platforms and pontificated on the future of “wearable AI.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2023

"There's obviously nothing immoral about nuking computers," Scott pontificated.

From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau

Rebecca Nagle: The part we all know is the part where Thomas Jefferson is pontificating about these enlightenment ideals.

From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2026

Carpenter plucks Cricket from arts college and its meaningless pontificating to his “atelier in the corn,” a ramshackle Victorian where Cricket learns how to transmute what he sees with color and light.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026

The vice president pretended to pivot from “a longer discussion” of the subject, but then he immediately started pontificating about the culture’s “desire” to classify “celestial beings who fly around “as aliens.”

From Salon ● Apr. 1, 2026

The White House, in response to those remarks, said Madden should “stick to pontificating about pump-and-dump fraud schemes instead of international trade,” as MarketWatch reported last year.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 25, 2026

“After all of your pontificating about the contortionist?”

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern