pastoral

From Middle French, Old French pastoral, from Latin pāstōrālis, from pāstor (“shepherd”), + adjective suffix -ālis.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpæs.tə.ɹəl/, /ˈpɑːstə.ɹəl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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  • Audio (Southern England):

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• enPR: păs"tōr-al, IPA^(key): /ˌpæsˈtɔːɹəl/
• Rhymes: -ɔːɹəl

pastoral (comparative more pastoral, superlative most pastoral)

1. Of or pertaining to shepherds or herders of other livestock.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 160:

     Like the Mesolithic age of 10,000-8000 B.C., the period 6000-4000 B.C. seems to be one of the fall of fortresses and the rise of pastoral nomadism.

2. Relating to rural life and scenes, in particular of poetry.

   We were living a pastoral life.

   • 1798, Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Lines Above Tintern Abbey, lines 16–18:

     […] these pastoral farms, / Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke / Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 219–220:

     There was a tone, too, of pastoral poetry shed over the new scenes to which they were just introduced, that had a greater effect from the contrast to those, artificial and crowded, which they had just left.

   • 1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC:

     He wanders west as far as Memphis, a solitary migrant upon that flat and pastoral landscape.

3. Relating to the care of souls, to the pastor of a church or to any local religious leader charged with the service of individual parishioners, i.e. a priest or rabbi.

   pastoral duties

   a pastoral letter

   • 2024 April 8, Jason Horowitz, Elisabetta Povoledo, quoting Víctor Manuel Fernández, “Vatican Document Casts Gender Change and Fluidity as Threat to Human Dignity”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     “In terms of pastoral consequences,” Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who leads the Vatican’s office on doctrine, said in a news conference Monday, “the principle of welcoming all is clear in the words of Pope Francis.”

• al pastor

pastoral (plural pastorals)

1. A poem describing the life and manners of shepherds; a poem in which the speakers assume the character of shepherds; an idyll; a bucolic.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 115:

     Ethel was silent from surprise: she had prepared herself for anger—even sorrow; but ridicule left her without an answer. What could she say to a hearer, who only smiled, and to whom emotion was only a scene in a pastoral?

2. (music) A cantata relating to rural life; a composition for instruments characterized by simplicity and sweetness; a lyrical composition the subject of which is taken from rural life.
3. (religion, Christianity) A letter of a pastor to his charge; specifically, a letter addressed by a bishop to his diocese.
4. (religion, Christianity) A letter of the House of Bishops, to be read in each parish.

• Laportas, al pastor, postalar, proatlas

Borrowed from Latin pāstōrālis.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [pəs.tuˈɾal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [pəs.toˈɾal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [pas.toˈɾal]

pastoral m or f (masculine and feminine plural pastorals)

1. pastoral

• pastor

• “pastoral”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “pastoral”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “pastoral” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “pastoral” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Old French pastoral, from Latin pastorālis, from pāstor (“shepherd”) (whence pâtre).

• IPA^(key): /pas.tɔ.ʁal/

pastoral (feminine pastorale, masculine plural pastoraux, feminine plural pastorales)

1. pastoral

• paître

• “pastoral”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• IPA^(key): /pastoˈʁaːl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːl

pastoral (strong nominative masculine singular pastoraler, not comparable)

1. pastoral

• “pastoral” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “pastoral” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon

Borrowed from Dutch pastoraal, from Old French pastoral, from Latin pāstōrālis

• IPA^(key): /pasˈto.ral/, [pasˈt̪o.ral]

pastoral (comparative lebih pastoral, superlative paling pastoral)

1. pastoral:
   1. of or pertaining to shepherds or herders of other livestock
   2. relating to rural life and scenes, in particular of poetry
   3. relating to the care of souls, to the pastor of a church or to any local religious leader charged with the service of individual parishioners, i.e. a priest or rabbi

pastoral (plural pastoral-pastoral)

1. pastoral:
   1. a poem describing the life and manners of shepherds; a poem in which the speakers assume the character of shepherds; an idyll; a bucolic
   2. a cantata relating to rural life; a composition for instruments characterized by simplicity and sweetness; a lyrical composition the subject of which is taken from rural life

• “pastoral” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

From Latin pāstōrālis.

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: pas‧to‧ral

pastoral m or f (plural pastorais)

1. alternative form of pastoril
2. pastoral (relating to the pastor of a church)

pastoral f (plural pastorais)

1. (Roman Catholicism) a letter written by a bishop or the pope explaining a doctrine

Borrowed from French pastoral, from Latin pastorale.

pastoral m or n (feminine singular pastorală, masculine plural pastorali, feminine and neuter plural pastorale)

1. pastoral

From Latin pāstōrālis.

• IPA^(key): /pastoˈɾal/ [pas.t̪oˈɾal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: pas‧to‧ral

pastoral m or f (masculine and feminine plural pastorales)

1. pastoral

pastoral f (plural pastorales)

1. pastoral

• “pastoral”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024