Temporal

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈtÉ›mp.ɜː(ɹ).É™l/

From Middle English temporal, from Old French temporal, from Latin temporalis, from tempus ("season, time, opportunity").

Full definition of temporal

Adjective

1. Of or relating to time.
2. Of limited time; not perpetual.
• Bible, 2 Corinthians iv. 18The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
3. Of or relating to the material world, as opposed to spiritual.
• 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 166: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.
4. Lasting a short time only.
5. Civil or political, as distinguished from ecclesiastical.temporal power; temporal courts

Derived terms

• extratemporal
• metatemporal
• temporality
• temporally

Noun

1. (chiefly in the plural) Anything temporal or secular; a temporality.
• LowellHe assigns supremacy to the pope in spirituals, and to the emperor in temporals.

From New Latin temporalis, from Latin tempora ("the temples"), plural of tempus ("temple, head, face").

Adjective

1. of the temples of the head

Derived terms

• temporal bone
• temporal lobe

Noun

1. (skeleton) Either of the bones on the side of the skull, near the ears.
2. Any of a reptile's scales on the side of the head between the parietal and supralabial scales, and behind the postocular scales.