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A pontiff is the Pope — the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome. In everyday talk people just say the Pope. Pontiff is a more formal word. You meet it in news headlines, history books, and careful writing: the pontiff visited, the pontiff said. It can mean this Pope now, or a pope in the past. Some writers stretch it to any very grand church leader, but the solid meaning is the Pope. It does not mean a local priest or pastor.
教宗（台灣天主教慣用詞；中國大陸較常說「教皇」）
組成Borrowed from Middle French pontife, from Latin pontifex. English also has pontifex from the same Latin word; they are a pair (a doublet).
同家族的字
- pontifexthe Latin source; pontiff is its doublet
- pontificatefrom the same Latin pontifex — the Pope’s office, or to speak in a grand, preachy way
- pontificalfrom the same Latin pontifex — of the Pope, or sounding very sure and grand
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Pontiffname
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A surname transferred from the nickname.
pontiffnoun/ˈpɒntɪf/
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historicalA member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs; a pontifex.
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A bishop of the early Church; now specifically, the Pope.
- In several respects John turned out to be an unexpected figure as supreme pontiff.
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Any chief figure or leader of a religion.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。