presidential

• Presidential

From president +‎ -ial.

• IPA^(key): /pɹɛzɪˈdɛnʃ(ə)l/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pres‧i‧den‧tial

presidential (comparative more presidential, superlative most presidential)

1. Pertaining to a president or presidency. [from 17th c.]
   • 2024 March 20, Veronique de Rugy, “The Political Right Has Luxury Beliefs, Too”, in Reason‎^[1]:

     Take the New Right's full-throated embrace of protectionism and industrial policy. This romance with protectionism started in the 1990s with former GOP presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, gained enormous traction under former President Donald Trump, and is still going strong today.

2. (obsolete) Presiding or watching over. [17th–19th c.]
3. With the bearing or composure that befits a president; stately, dignified. [from 19th c.]
   • 2016 November 20, Stewart Lee, “No more schmoozing with the enemy on TV shows”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     I feel my age and supposed status mean I am permanently required to be in presidential mode. And I mean this in the old sense of “presidential”, meaning magnanimous, patient and generous, rather than in the modern sense of presidential, meaning being a corrupt, pussy-grabbing racist.

4. (Roman Catholicism) (of prayers) addressed to God on behalf of the congregation by the presiding priest
   • 2002, General Instruction of the Roman Missal, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc., §30

     These prayers are addressed to God in the name of the entire holy people and all present, by the priest who presides over the assembly in the person of Christ. It is with good reason, therefore, that they are called the "presidential prayers."