Link Centre Dictionary

pastoral

pas·to·ral

UK/ˈpɑːstə.ɹəl/ US/ˈpæs.tə.ɹəl/ uncommon
adjective (4) noun (3)

adjective

1.

of or relating to a pastor

  • “pastoral work”
  • “a pastoral letter”
2.

relating to shepherds or herdsmen or devoted to raising sheep or cattle

  • “pastoral seminomadic people”
  • “pastoral land”
  • “a pastoral economy”
Synonyms
3.

used of idealized country life

  • “a country life of arcadian contentment”
  • “a pleasant bucolic scene”
  • “charming in its pastoral setting”
  • “rustic tranquility”
Synonyms
Similar
4.

suggestive of an idyll; charmingly simple and serene

  • “his idyllic life in Tahiti”
  • “the pastoral legends of America”
Synonyms
Similar

noun

1.

a musical composition that evokes rural life

Synonyms
2.

a letter from a pastor to the congregation

3.

a literary work idealizing the rural life (especially the life of shepherds)

Origin

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

Phrases

  • al pastor
  • pastoral care
  • pastoral charge
  • pastoral letter
  • pastoral staff
  • pastoral theology

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.