excommunication
/ɛkskəmjuːnɪˈkeɪʃən/
excommunication means the act of excommunicating, disfellowshipping or ejecting; especially an ecclesiastical censure whereby the person against whom it is pronounced is, for the time, cast out of the communication of the church; exclusion from fellowship in things spiritual. It carries an Arena rating of 1581, earned across 41 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, excommunication ranks #412 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #863 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #2,058 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #2,359 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
excommunication is pronounced /ɛkskəmjuːnɪˈkeɪʃən/.
Why “excommunication” is a great word
EXCOMMUNICATION — [Noun] An ecclesiastical censure by which a person is excluded from the communion of a church and its sacraments. From Middle English excommunicacion, from Late Latin excommūnicātiōnem, from ex- ("out of") + commūnicātiō ("communion, sharing"). First attested in English in the late 14th or early 15th century. Unlike ostracism, a general social or political exile, or censure, a formal rebuke, excommunication is a ritual severance, a spiritual exile enacted by solemn decree. It is the barred cathedral door, the withheld bread and wine, and the profound silence where a shared prayer should be—the meticulous administration of a metaphysical solitude.
Etymology
From Middle English excommunicacion, from Late Latin excommūnicātiō. By surface analysis, excommunicate + -ion. Displaced native Old English āmǣnsumung.
noun
- The act of excommunicating, disfellowshipping or ejecting; especially an ecclesiastical censure whereby the person against whom it is pronounced is, for the time, cast out of the communication of the church; exclusion from fellowship in things spiritual.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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