anticlerical

American  

[an-tee-kler-i-kuhl, an-tahy-] / ˌæn tiˈklɛr ɪ kəl, ˌæn taɪ- /

adjective

1. opposed to the influence and activities of the clergy or the church in secular or public affairs.

---

anticlerical British  

/ ˌæntɪˈklɛrɪkəl /

adjective

1. opposed to the power and influence of the clergy, esp in politics

---

noun

1. a supporter of an anticlerical party

Other Word Forms

• anticlericalism
  noun
• anticlericalist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of anticlerical

First recorded in 1835–45; anti- + clerical

Example Sentences

Palma is lighthearted, ironic, amusing and anticlerical by nature, and in his writing he makes fun of the sumptuous interiorities of viceroys and courtesans.

From New York Times • Nov. 1, 2023

Although the leaders of many anticlerical organizations were deemed heretics and suppressed by church leaders, they nevertheless laid the groundwork for the sixteenth-century religious revolution known as the Protestant Reformation.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

And though many of the tougher anticlerical laws have been eased in modern times, church-state separation remains entrenched as a core political concept.

From Washington Post • Dec. 18, 2019

In the last room of the exhibit is Bocanegra’s staging of “Dialogue of the Carmelites,” a nineteen-fifties opera based on the story of a French convent where the nuns are executed by anticlerical French revolutionaries.

From The New Yorker • Oct. 19, 2018

“But the priest––did you not say only last week that he himself had published a book violently anticlerical in tone?”

From Carmen Ariza by Stocking, Charles Francis