secular
secular Lexical Profile
secular Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Not connected with religious or spiritual matters; temporal or worldly.
"The country's constitution guarantees a strict separation between religious institutions and the secular state."
(In economics and sciences) occurring or persisting over an indefinitely long period rather than being seasonal or cyclical.
"Economists pointed to a secular decline in manufacturing employment driven by decades of automation."
(Of Christian clergy) not bound by monastic vows or belonging to a religious order; living in the world rather than in a monastery.
"Unlike the cloistered monks in the abbey, the secular priests ministered directly to the local parish community."
Occurring or celebrated once in an age or century.
"In ancient Rome, the Secular Games were grand religious festivals held only once every hundred years."
• noun
A member of the Christian clergy who lives in the world and is not bound by monastic vows.
"Disputes occasionally arose in medieval universities between the mendicant friars and the seculars."
A layperson; someone who is not a member of the clergy.
"The monastery opened its library to scholars, allowing both clerics and seculars to study the ancient manuscripts."
• Rhymes for secular
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed from Old French seculer, from Late Latin saecularis ('worldly, pagan'), from Latin saeculum ('generation, age, century'). Because the Christian church viewed the temporal age as belonging to the material world rather than eternity, saecularis came to mean 'worldly' as opposed to 'spiritual'.