• IPA^(key):/ˈtɛm.pə.ɹəl/

  • Audio(Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes:-ɛmpəɹəl

FromMiddle Englishtemporal,temporel(“transitory, worldly, material, of secular society”), fromOld Frenchtemporel orLatintemporālis(“of time (in grammar), temporary, relating to time as opposed to eternity”), fromtempus(“time, period, opportunity”) +‎-ālis.

temporal (not generallycomparable,comparativemoretemporal,superlativemosttemporal)

1. (relational) Of or relating to thematerial world, as opposed tosacred orclerical.

   Synonyms:secular,lay,civil

   Antonyms:spiritual,ecclesiastical

   temporal power,temporal courts

   TheRight Honourable the LordsSpiritual andTemporal of theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland inParliament assembled(The official title of theHouse of Lords)

   • 1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, inRailway Magazine, page252:

     The [papal] train was in use until 1871, when the Pope [Pius IX] lost histemporal power.

   • 2011,Thomas Penn,Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England,Penguin Books, page166:

     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 distinctlytemporal impulses.

2. (relational) Relating totime:
   1. Oflimitedtime,transient,passing, notperpetual, as opposed toeternal.
      • 1611,The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London:[…]Robert Barker, […],→OCLC,2 Corinthians4:18:

        The things which are seen aretemporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

      1. (euphemistic)Lasting for ashorttime only.
   2. Of or relating totime as distinguished fromspace.
   3. Of or relating to thesequence oftime or to a particular time.

      Synonym:chronological

   4. (grammar) Relating to or denotingtime ortense.

temporal (pluraltemporals)

1. (chiefly in theplural) Anythingtemporal orsecular; atemporality.
   • 1684,John Dryden,The History of the League, translation ofHistoire de la Ligue byLouis Maimbourg:

     for God's people love always to be dealing as well intemporals as spirituals

   • 1876,James Russell Lowell, “Dante”, inAmong My Books. Second Series., Boston, Mass.:James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, lateTicknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co.,→OCLC,page30:

     He assigns supremacy to the pope in spirituals, and to the emperor intemporals.

FromMiddle English, fromMiddle Frenchtimporal,temporal, fromLate Latintemporālis, fromtempora(“the temples of the head”) +‎-ālis(“-al”,adjectival suffix).Doublet oftemporalis.

temporal (notcomparable)

2. (anatomy,relational) Of or situated in thetemples of thehead or the sides of theskull behind theorbits.

temporal (pluraltemporals)

1. (anatomy)Ellipsis oftemporal bone.
2. (zootomy) Any of areptile'sscales on the side of the head between theparietal andsupralabial scales, and behind thepostocular scales.

• “temporal”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
• “temporal”, inMerriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• William Dwight Whitney,Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “temporal”, inThe Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,→OCLC.

Borrowed fromLatintemporālis.

• IPA^(key):(Central)[təm.puˈɾal]
• IPA^(key):(Balearic)[təm.poˈɾal]
• IPA^(key):(Valencia)[tem.poˈɾal]
• Rhymes:-al

temporal m (pluraltemporals)

1. storm

temporal m orf (masculine and feminine pluraltemporals)

1. temporary
2. temporal

• lòbul temporal
• temporalment

• temps

• “temporal”, inDiccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition,Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan:Institut d'Estudis Catalans], 2007 April
• “temporal”, inGran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana,Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana,2025.
• “temporal” inDiccionari normatiu valencià,Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “temporal” inDiccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

temporàl m

1. (Luserna)thunderstorm

• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013)Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

Borrowed fromNew Latintemporālis, fromtempus(“temple”) (whencetempe).

• IPA^(key):/tɑ̃.pɔ.ʁal/

temporal (femininetemporale,masculine pluraltemporaux,feminine pluraltemporales)

1. (anatomy)temporal

   lobe temporal ―temporal lobe

• Not to be confused withtemporel.

• os temporal

• “temporal”, inTrésor de la langue française informatisé[Digitized Treasury of the French Language],2012.

13th century.Learned borrowing fromLatintemporālis, fromtempus(“time”).

• IPA^(key):/tɛmpoˈɾal/

temporal m orf (pluraltemporais)

1. temporal, pertaining totime
2. temporal,transient, as opposed toeternal
3. temporal, pertaining to thetemples of thehead
4. (grammar) of agrammaticalcase inHungarian

• temporalmente

temporal m (pluraltemporais)

1. (weather)rainstorm

   Synonyms:ballón,invernada

2. (weather)windstorm

   Synonym:vendaval

3. (weather)tempest

   Synonym:tempestade

temporal m (pluraltemporais)

1. (anatomy) thetemporal bone

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane,María Álvarez de la Granja,Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “temporal”, inDicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “temporal”, inCorpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “temporal”, inDicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández,Ernesto Xosé González Seoane,María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “temporal”, inTesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “temporal”, inTesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega,→ISSN

• IPA^(key):/tɛmpoˈʁaːl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes:-aːl

temporal (strong nominative masculine singulartemporaler,not comparable)

1. temporal

   Synonym:zeitlich

Borrowed fromLate Latintemporālis, fromLatintempus(“time”).

temporal (neuter singulartemporalt,definite singular and pluraltemporale)

1. temporal (related to time)
2. temporal (related to the temples)

• temporalia

• temporær

• “temporal” inThe Bokmål Dictionary.
• “temporal” inThe Ordnett Dictionary

• Rhymes:(Portugal)-al,(Brazil)-aw
• Hyphenation:tem‧po‧ral

Learned borrowing fromLatintemporālis(“temporal”), fromtempus(“season, time, opportunity”), fromProto-Indo-European*tempos(“stretch”).

temporal m orf (pluraltemporais,notcomparable)

1. temporal(relating to time)

   Synonym:crónico

2. secular

   Synonym:secular

• atemporal

Fromtempo(“weather”).

temporal m (pluraltemporais)

1. downpour;heavyrain

   Synonyms:tempestade,vendaval

Fromtêmpora(“temple of the head”).

temporal m (pluraltemporais)

1. temporal bone

• osso

• crânio

• occipital,parietal,frontal,esfenoide,etmoide

Borrowed fromFrenchtemporel.

temporal m orn (feminine singulartemporală,masculine pluraltemporali,feminine and neuter pluraltemporale)

1. temporal(bone)

Borrowed fromLatintemporālis.

• IPA^(key):/tempoˈɾal/[t̪ẽm.poˈɾal]
• Rhymes:-al
• Syllabification:tem‧po‧ral

temporal m orf (masculine and feminine pluraltemporales)

1. temporal(of or relating to time)
2. temporary

   Synonym:temporario

3. (anatomy)temporal(of the temples of the head)

temporal m (pluraltemporales)

1. storm

   Synonyms:tempestad,vendaval

• “temporal”, inDiccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8,Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish:Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10