Lord Spiritual

noun

, plural Lords Spiritual.

1. a bishop or archbishop belonging to the House of Lords.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Lord Spiritual¹

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50

Example Sentences

The lord spiritual and temporal of the Mussulmans of Spain had fallen to such straits that he had to beg for bread and a candle.

From Project Gutenberg

The tithing-men are gone, and the deacons do not sit severe and conspicuous in the meeting-house, and the minister has not the air of a lord spiritual of the village; and the genius of modern times and the spirit of the age are entertained with full consciousness of what they are.

From Project Gutenberg

He came as the lord spiritual, and for the first time since 1870 as the lord temporal.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Jews are just as mixed a race as the Germans; they could hardly be more!" cried this Lord Spiritual.

From Time Magazine Archive

Unhappy and hard-pressed was the same noble Lord Spiritual last week when he learned that one of his clergy, a 70-year-old-curate from Camelsdale, near Haslemere, named Rev. William Henry Boyne Bunting, had turned on the gas, died in his barren bedroom along with his wife Hilda, 56.

From Time Magazine Archive