excommunicate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
excommunicates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
excommunicated,
past participle, past
-
excommunicating
present participle
-
to cut off from communion with a church or exclude from the sacraments of a church by ecclesiastical sentence.
-
to exclude or expel from membership or participation in any group, association, etc..
an advertiser excommunicated from a newspaper.
noun
adjective
verb
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
excommunicationnoun
-
excommunicatornoun
-
excommunicableadjective
-
excommunicativeadjective
-
unexcommunicatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
excommunicatesimple
-
excommunicatessimple
-
have excommunicatedperfect
-
has excommunicatedperfect
-
am excommunicatingprogressive
-
are excommunicatingprogressive
-
is excommunicatingprogressive
-
have been excommunicatingperfect progressive
-
has been excommunicatingperfect progressive
Past
-
excommunicatedsimple
-
had excommunicatedperfect
-
was excommunicatingprogressive
-
were excommunicatingprogressive
-
had been excommunicatingperfect progressive
Future
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
Explanation
To excommunicate someone is to officially banish them from their church. In everyday usage, this word can also refer to expelling or excluding someone from any kind of group. The science club might excommunicate you if you declare that the earth is flat. If a congregant breaks an important church rule, its leaders might formally remove — or excommunicate—that person. This word comes from the Late Latin excommunicare, "put out of the community," or in Church Latin, "expel from communion." To excommunicate a Christian means, in part, that they can't participate in church rituals including the sacrament of communion and are no longer part of the community.
Vocabulary lists containing excommunicate
Medieval Europe - Middle School
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Struggle in Medieval Europe, Lessons 1–2
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Medieval Europe - High School
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
So, the court's guidelines will also help decide whether women can be denied entry into Parsi temples and Muslim mosques, whether religious leaders can excommunicate people and the legality of female genital mutilation.
From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2026
After the service, journalists were asked to leave while members voted on a move of “church discipline” to excommunicate Long under the church’s bylaws.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 21, 2021
“They can’t excommunicate me because I am not going anywhere,” she says.
From New York Times ● May 22, 2020
In an open letter published in August this year, she asked Pope Francis to excommunicate her, and said she had made similar previous appeals to Pope Benedict and John Paul II.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 26, 2018
Such a pair were once sent with bulls to excommunicate Barnabas Visconti, but Barnabas only made them eat their bulls—parchment, ribbons, leaden seals and all.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
It now excommunicates anyone who practises polygamy but a number of fundamentalist Mormon offshoots continue to do so.
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2020
Complying with the church commandments isn’t such a problem for many Amish inmates, because the church usually excommunicates members who commit crimes of violence or depravity before they enter prison.
From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2012
The mainstream Mormon church, which has no affiliation with the FLDS, abandoned polygamy in 1890 and excommunicates members engaged in the practice.
From Reuters ● Jun. 22, 2012
Good Catholic wives glanced at the crucifix on the wall, tried not to think of excommunicates.
From Time Magazine Archive
He excommunicates his neighbour Hugh de Puiset, who is little concerned by it; he causes the chalices used by the bishop of Durham to be destroyed as profaned.
From A Literary History of the English People From the Origins to the Renaissance by Jean Jules Jusserand
At one point in the 1980s, bishops from the Society were excommunicated for disobeying Rome, but that decision was later reversed.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
They were immediately excommunicated, but the sanction was lifted in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
“I like to say I was excommunicated from the church of the medical establishment,” he said in the Substack video.
From Salon ● Dec. 15, 2025
Samuel Sanders, director of the Fellowship board, was excommunicated after he wrote an internal email to fellow board members in 1981.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2023
Who becomes a social pariah and excommunicated from civil society and who trots off to college bears scant relationship to the morality of crimes committed.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
“I don’t believe in excommunicating anything, but I’m, to a fault, aggressively not on-screen. I carry a phone, but I’m legendary for being the hardest person to get a hold of.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
The Vatican has declared a formal schism with the Society of St. Pius X, excommunicating its bishops and priests in a sweeping crackdown on a traditionalist group that has vexed the Holy See for decades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
The Vatican has been considering developing a doctrine about excommunicating Catholic mobsters.
From Seattle Times ● May 9, 2021
Another commenter added, “Why are they excommunicating you over a 1-year-olds attendance? That baby will never remember your wedding day and likely would never care that he wasn’t invited.”
From Fox News ● May 15, 2019
To a demand for the resignation of his temporal power he replied by a bull, dated June tenth, 1809, excommunicating the invaders of his states; thereupon he was seized and sent a prisoner to Grenoble.
From The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte Vol. III. (of IV.) by William Milligan Sloane
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
