secular means not specifically religious; lay or civil, as opposed to clerical. It carries an Arena rating of 1587, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, secular ranks #1,533 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #2,816 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #5,905 of 17,130 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #7,187 of 17,111 for Most Sublime Words.
secular is pronounced /ˈsɛkjʊlə/.
Why “secular” is a great word
Relating to worldly, temporal, or civil matters as opposed to religious or spiritual ones. From Middle English seculer, from Old French seculer, from Latin saeculāris ('of the age, worldly'), from saeculum ('generation, age, century, the world'). Unlike "clerical," which denotes the domain of the ordained, or "eternal," which escapes time altogether, secular is bound to the concrete duration of the here and now. It is the ticking of the town-hall clock, the weight of a judge’s gavel, and the quiet, determined focus of a teacher in a public-school classroom—all endeavors that find their meaning within the shared confines of a single, fleeting age, where meaning is forged not from the eternal but from the mortal turn of seasons and choices.
Etymology
From Middle English seculer, from Old French seculer, from Latin saeculāris (“of the age”), from saeculum.
adj
- Not specifically religious; lay or civil, as opposed to clerical.
- Temporal; worldly, or otherwise not based on something timeless.
- Not bound by the vows of a religious order.e.g.“Near-synonym: nonmonastic”
- Happening once in an age or century.e.g.“Near-synonyms: centurial, centennial”
- Continuing over a long period of time.e.g.“The long-term growth in population and income accounts for most secular trends in economic phenomena.”
- Centuries-old, ancient.
- Relating to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion or magnetic field.
- Unperturbed over time.e.g.“The secular A and nonsecular B parts of hyperfine interaction for any particular frequencies ν_α and ν_β are derived from eqn.(21) by ...”
noun
- A secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.e.g.“On further examination, I found the clergy, in general, persons of moderate minds and decorous manners : I include the seculars, and the regulars of both sexes”
- A church official whose functions are confined to the vocal department of the choir.
- A layman, as distinguished from a clergyman.
Words closest in meaning
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