Temporal

How to spell temporal

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce temporal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does temporal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to time or to its measurement and sequence.
2. adjectiveRelating to worldly or secular affairs rather than spiritual ones.
3. adjectiveRelating to the temples, the region of the skull beside the eyes.

Temporal in a sentence

• The report mapped the temporal order of every transaction.

• The bishop held no temporal power over the city council.

• The surgeon described a fracture of the temporal bone.

• Editors must respect the temporal logic of a flashback scene.

• Medieval kings often clashed with the church over temporal authority.

• The scan showed swelling near the temporal lobe of the brain.

Where does temporal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin tempus, meaning 'time', whose stem tempor- gave the adjective temporalis, 'relating to time' or 'lasting only for a time'. English took it up through Old French in the 1300s, and from the outset it carried two strands of meaning: the literal sense of belonging to time, and the figurative sense of belonging to this passing world rather than to eternity, which is why church writers used 'temporal' for worldly or secular affairs as opposed to spiritual ones. A quite separate route gave the anatomical sense: Latin tempora also named the temples of the head, the soft spots beside the eyes, possibly because that is where hair first turns grey with the passage of time. The same tempus root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'temporary', 'tempo', and 'contemporary'. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle vowel, written -or- but sounded as a faint schwa, which tempts writers toward 'temperal'.

How the word is built

• tempor- (from Latin tempus, tempor-: time)
• -al (adjective suffix: relating to)