excommunicate
Americanverb (used with object)
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excommunicates,
present (3rd person singular)
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excommunicated,
past participle, past
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excommunicating
present participle
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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
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excommunicationnoun
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excommunicatornoun
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excommunicableadjective
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excommunicativeadjective
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unexcommunicatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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excommunicatesimple
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excommunicatessimple
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have excommunicatedperfect
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has excommunicatedperfect
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am excommunicatingprogressive
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are excommunicatingprogressive
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is excommunicatingprogressive
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have been excommunicatingperfect progressive
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has been excommunicatingperfect progressive
Past
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excommunicatedsimple
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had excommunicatedperfect
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was excommunicatingprogressive
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were excommunicatingprogressive
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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
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Struggle in Medieval Europe, Lessons 1–2
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Medieval Europe - High School
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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
“They just said, ‘Hey, let’s excommunicate her father.’
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 3, 2022
“They can’t excommunicate me because I am not going anywhere,” she says.
From New York Times ● May 22, 2020
In 1784, Methodists made plans to excommunicate all members who had not freed their slaves within the next two years.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 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
The authors of the treatises on the Inquisition," writes Tanon, "classed as heretics all those who favored heresy, and all excommunicates who did not submit to the Church within a certain period.
From The Inquisition A Critical and Historical Study of the Coercive Power of the Church by Bertrand L. (Bertrand Louis) Conway
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
“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
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 ● Nov. 28, 2025
In 2009, for example, Pope Benedict diplomatically reconnected with a far-right group that had, in a great scandal in the ’80s, excommunicated itself by consecrating bishops outside the church’s approval.
From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2023
Pigeons destroyed farm fields so often that the bishop of Quebec formally excommunicated the species in 1703.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Soon after, the patriarch issued his own letter excommunicating the pope’s representatives.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
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
In 1988, Pope John Paul II took the dramatic step of excommunicating a renegade religious society led by the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, which had rejected Vatican reforms.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2018
Boniface decided to issue a bull excommunicating and deposing Philip.
From A Source Book of Medi?val History Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance by Frederic Austin Ogg
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.
