• Secular

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /sÉ›k.jÉ™.lÉ™(ɹ)/, /sÉ›k.jÊŠu.lɑː(ɹ)/ (British)

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    Latin saecularis ("of the age"), from saeculum

    Full definition of secular

    Adjective

    secular

    1. Not specifically religious.
    2. Temporal; something that is worldly or otherwise not based on something timeless.
    3. (Christianity) Not bound by the vows of a monastic order.secular clergy in Catholicism
    4. Happening once in an age or century.The secular games of ancient Rome were held to mark the end of a saeculum and the beginning of the next.
    5. Continuing over a long period of time, long-term.The long-term growth in population and income accounts for most secular trends in economic phenomena.''on a secular basis
    6. (literary) Centuries-old, ancient.
      • 1899, Joseph Conrad, ,The long reaches that were like one and the same reach, monotonous bends that were exactly alike, slipped past the steamer with their multitude of secular trees looking patiently after this grimy fragment of another world, the forerunner of change, of conquest, of trade, of massacres, of blessings.
    7. (astrophysics) Of or pertaining to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion.
    8. (atomic physics) Unperturbed over time.
      • 2000, S. A. Dikanov, Two-dimensional ESEEM Spectroscopy, in New Advances in Analytical Chemistry (Atta-ur-Rahman, ed.), page 539''The secular A and nonsecular B parts of hyperfine interaction for any particular frequencies να and ν
    β are derived from eqn.(21) by ...''

    Synonyms

    Antonyms

    Noun

    secular

    (plural seculars)
    1. A secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.
    2. A church official whose functions are confined to the vocal department of the choir.
    3. A layman, as distinguished from a clergyman.

    Anagrams

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