excommunicate

American  

[eks-kuh-myoo-ni-keyt, eks-kuh-myoo-ni-kit, -keyt] / ˌɛks kəˈmyu nɪˌkeɪt, ˌɛks kəˈmyu nɪ kɪt, -ˌkeɪt /

verb (used with object)

excommunicated, excommunicating

1. to cut off from communion with a church or exclude from the sacraments of a church by ecclesiastical sentence.

2. to exclude or expel from membership or participation in any group, association, etc..

   an advertiser excommunicated from a newspaper.

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noun

1. an excommunicated person.

adjective

1. cut off from communion with a church; excommunicated.

excommunicate British  

verb

1. (tr) to sentence (a member of the Church) to exclusion from the communion of believers and from the privileges and public prayers of the Church

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adjective

1. having incurred such a sentence

noun

1. an excommunicated person

Other Word Forms

• excommunicable adjective
• excommunication noun
• excommunicative adjective
• excommunicator noun
• unexcommunicated adjective

Etymology

Origin of excommunicate

1375–1425; late Middle English excommunicaten (v.) < Late Latin excommūnicātus literally, put out of the community (past participle of excommūnicāre ), equivalent to ex- ex- ¹ + commūn ( is ) common, public + -ic- (by analogy with commūnicāre to communicate ) + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

Two excommunicated Spanish nuns who have joined a sect were held for allegedly selling cultural assets belonging to the Catholic Church from a convent they refuse to leave, a court said on Friday.

From Barron's

AI isn’t going anywhere: It’s already an essential tool for the modern economy, and excommunicating it from the classroom would leave graduates unprepared for the future.

From The Wall Street Journal

He did this by threatening to excommunicate from the Church those bishops who refused to comply with his wishes.

From BBC

He said he had had several meetings with Braverman, whom he said had been "excommunicated" and made a "pariah" by the Conservatives, despite what he said were her far-sighted views on immigration.

From BBC

Smyth was only excommunicated by his local church the year before his death in 2018, after he was named publicly as an abuser in a Channel 4 News report.

From BBC