Meanings
plural encyclicals
- A papal letter, intended for general circulation in the Catholic Church.
In his encyclical – the first major text on safeguarding humankind of his papacy – he also apologised for the Catholic church’s long delay in condemning slavery, describing it as “a wound in Christian memory”, and spoke of the “new forms of slavery” due to the digital economy.
2026 May 25, Angela Giuffrida, “Pope Leo denounces ‘culture of power’ driving rise of AI”, in The Guardian, →ISSNSynonyms: encyclical letter
- not comparableIntended for general circulation.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA papal letter, intended for general circulation in the Catholic Church.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectiveintended for wide distribution
nouna letter from the pope sent to all Roman Catholic bishops throughout the world
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Ancient Greekἐγκύκλιος“circular, general”
- Englishencyclical
From Late Latin encyclicus + -al, from Ancient Greek ἐγκύκλιος (enkúklios, “circular, general”), from ἐν- (en-) + κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Czech encyklika
- encyklikapapal letter
Esperanto encikliko
- enciklikopapal letter
Finnish ensyklika
- ensyklikapapal letter
French encyclique
- encycliquepapal letter
German Enzyklika
- Enzyklikapapal letter
Hungarian enciklika
- enciklikapapal letter
Indonesian ensiklik
- ensiklikpapal letter
Irish imlitir ón bPápa
- imlitir ón bPápapapal letter
Italian enciclica
- enciclicapapal letter
Norwegian Bokmål pavelig rundskriv
- pavelig rundskrivpapal letter
Polish encyklika
- encyklikapapal letter
Portuguese encíclica
- encíclicapapal letter
Romanian enciclică
- enciclicăpapal letter
Russian энци́клика
- энци́клика (encíklika)papal letter
Spanish encíclica
- encíclicapapal letter
Swedish encyklika
- encyklikapapal letter
Ukrainian енци́кліка
- енци́кліка (encýklika)papal letter
Vietnamese thông điệp
- thông điệppapal letter
Cite this entry
encyclical. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/encyclical
“encyclical.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/encyclical. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “encyclical,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/encyclical.
Source: encyclical on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.