pulpit

From Middle English pulpit, from Old French pulpite and Latin pulpitum (“platform”). Doublet of pulpitum.

• enPR: po͝olˈˈˈˈˈˈˈ-pĭt, pŭlˈˈˈˈˈˈˈ-pĭt
• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpʊlpɪt/, /ˈpʌlpɪt/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊlpɪt, -ʌlpɪt
• Hyphenation: pul‧pit

pulpit (plural pulpits)

2. (Christianity, countable) A raised platform in a church, sometimes enclosed, where the minister or preacher stands when giving the sermon; also, the lectern on such a platform.
   • 1915, Russell H. Conwell, Robert Shackleton, chapter IV, in Acres of Diamonds‎^[1], His Life and Achievements:

     Always, whether in the pulpit or on the platform, as in private conversation, there is an absolute simplicity about the man and his words; a simplicity, an earnestness, a complete honesty.

   • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 12:

     [H]is `Amens' were ejected at the pulpit with the severity of a reprimand.

3. (metonymic, chiefly Christianity)
   1. (uncountable) Activity associated with or usually performed from a church pulpit; preaching, sermons, religious teaching.
   2. (uncountable) The preaching profession, office, or role in general; the pastorate, the priesthood, the ministry.
   3. (uncountable) Preachers collectively; clergy; the priesthood.
   4. (countable) An individual or particular preaching position or role; a pastorate.

      He seems like too timid a man to fill the pulpit at such a large church.

4. (by extension) Bully pulpit.
5. (countable) Any lectern, podium, dais, or platform for an orator or public speaker.
6. (countable, nautical) The railing at the bow of a boat, which sometimes extends past the deck; also called bow pulpit. The railing at the stern is sometimes called the stern pulpit or the pushpit.
7. (countable, nautical) A bow platform for harpooning.
   • 1975, Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb, Jaws:

     [Hooper:] Will you just please go to the end of the pulpit!
     [Brody:] What for?
     [Hooper:] I need to have something in the foreground to give it some scale.
     [Brody:] Foreground, my ass!

8. (UK military slang, dated) A plane's cockpit.
   • 1941 March 24, Life, page 85:

     In the slang of the Royal Air Force man, the cockpit of his plane is the ‘pulpit’ or ‘office’, the glass covering over it the ‘greenhouse’.

• (place or occasion for public speaking or for expounding one's views): platform; soapbox; (uncommon) tribune
• (dated British slang for cockpit): office; see also cockpit

• bully pulpit
• Jack-in-the-pulpit
• parson-in-the-pulpit
• pulpital
• wayside pulpit

• ambo

• pulpet, pollepyt, pullpite, polepitt, pulpitte, pulpytt, pulpette, pulpite

Borrowed from Latin pulpitum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpulpit/

pulpit

1. A pulpit (podium for religious oratory)
2. A podium for non-religious oratory.
3. (rare) A seat in a church for royalty.

• English: pulpit
• Scots: poopit, poupit

• “pulpit, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 18 January 2019.

Learned borrowing from Latin pulpitum. Doublet of pult.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpul.pit/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ulpit
• Syllabification: pul‧pit

pulpit m inan (diminutive pulpicik)

1. (computing) desktop (the main graphical user interface of an operating system)
2. pulpit, lectern

• pulpit in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• pulpit in Polish dictionaries at PWN