• IPA: /ˈtɛm.pə.ɹəl/

From Middle English temporal, temporel, from Old French temporel or Latin temporālis, from tempus + -ālis.

temporal (not comparable)

1. (relational) Of or relating to the material world, as opposed to sacred or clerical.

   temporal power, temporal courts

   The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled

   Synonyms: secular, lay, civil

   Antonyms: spiritual, ecclesiastical

2. (relational) Relating to time:
   1. Of limited time, transient, passing, not perpetual, as opposed to eternal.
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 2 Corinthians 4:18 ↗:

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

      1. (euphemistic) Lasting for a short time only.
   2. Of or relating to time as distinguished from space.
   3. Of or relating to the sequence of time or to a particular time.

      Synonyms: chronological

   4. (grammar) Relating to or denoting time or tense.

• French: temporel
• German: diesseitig, weltlich
• Portuguese: temporal
• Russian: све́тский

• French: temporel
• German: zeitlich, (in grammar also) temporal
• Italian: temporale
• Portuguese: temporal
• Russian: временно́й
• Spanish: temporal

• French: temporaire
• German: zeitweilig, vorübergehend, temporär
• Italian: temporale
• Portuguese: temporário
• Russian: вре́менный

• French: temporaire
• German: temporär
• Italian: temporale
• Portuguese: temporário
• Russian: преходя́щий

temporal (plural temporals)

1. (chiefly, in the plural) Anything temporal or secular; a temporality.
   • 1684, John Dryden, The History of the League, translation of Histoire de la Ligue by Louis Maimbourg:

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

   • 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 ↗:

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

From Middle English, from Middle French timporal, temporal, from Late Latin temporālis, from tempora + -ālis.

temporal (not comparable)

1. (anatomy, relational) Of or situated in the temples of the head or the sides of the skull behind the orbits.

• German: Schläfen-
• Italian: temporale
• Portuguese: temporal
• Russian: висо́чный

temporal (plural temporals)

1. (skeleton) Ellipsis of temporal bone
2. (zootomy) Any of a reptile's scales on the side of the head between the parietal and supralabial scales, and behind the postocular scales.