Temporal Meaning
/ˈtɛm.pə.ɹəl/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjOf or relating to the material world, as opposed to sacred or clerical.
adjRelating to time:, Of limited time, transient, passing, not perpetual, as opposed to eternal.
Sentence Examples
It took Tom a while to understand the rules of temporal sequence in indirect speech.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Because all things change and decay, the ____ nature of human life is inevitable.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The philosopher discussed the ____ nature of human life and how everything is subject to the passage of time today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English temporal, temporel (“transitory, worldly, material, of secular society”), from Old French temporel or Latin temporālis (“of time (in grammar), temporary, relating to time as opposed to eternity”), from tempus (“time, period, opportunity”) + -ālis.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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, […], →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 4:18:
"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., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 30:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Because all things change and decay, the ____ nature of human life is inevitable.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The philosopher discussed the ____ nature of human life and how everything is subject to the passage of time today.