The AI-powered English dictionary
not generally comparable, comparative more temporal, superlative most temporal
(relational) Of or relating to the material world, as opposed to sacred or clerical. quotations examples
The [papal] train was in use until 1871, when the Pope [Pius IX] lost his temporal power.
1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, in Railway Magazine, page 252
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.
2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England, Penguin Books, page 166
(relational) Relating to time:
Of limited time, transient, passing, not perpetual, as opposed to eternal. quotations
The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 2 Corinthians 4:18
(euphemistic) Lasting for a short time only. examples
Of or relating to time as distinguished from space. examples
Of or relating to the sequence of time or to a particular time. examples
(grammar) Relating to or denoting time or tense. examples
plural temporals
(chiefly in the plural) Anything temporal or secular; a temporality. quotations examples
for God's people love always to be dealing as well in temporals as spirituals
1684, John Dryden, The History of the League, translation of Histoire de la Ligue by Louis Maimbourg
He assigns supremacy to the pope in spirituals, and to the emperor in temporals.
1876, James Russell Lowell, “Dante”, in Among My Books: Second Series
not comparable
(anatomy, relational) Of or situated in the temples of the head or the sides of the skull behind the orbits. examples
(anatomy) Ellipsis of temporal bone. examples
(zootomy) Any of a reptile's scales on the side of the head between the parietal and supralabial scales, and behind the postocular scales. examples