secular
- of or relating to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal: secular interests.
- not pertaining to or connected with religion (opposed to sacred): secular music.
- (of education, a school, etc.) concerned with nonreligious subjects.
- (of members of the clergy) not belonging to a religious order; not bound by monastic vows (opposed to regular).
- occurring or celebrated once in an age or century: the secular games of Rome.
- going on from age to age; continuing through long ages.
- a layperson.
- one of the secular clergy.
Origin of secular
Examples from the Web for secular
Contemporary Examples
He advocates a secular regime with a total separation of religion form the government.
Behind Bars for the Holidays: 11 Political Prisoners We Want to See Free In 2015Movements.Org
December 25, 2014
So here, for your Christmas Eve pleasure, are 20 of my favorites, 10 from the ecclesiastical division and 10 secular.
From the religious (‘The Holly and the Ivy’) to the secular (‘The Chipmunk Song’), my top 20.
That is what conservative organizations, religious and secular, have done for centuries.
A secular police state well practiced in suppressing internal challenges.
Historical Examples
As we have said, India is a land where the secular does not appeal.
Lotus BudsAmy Carmichael
Of course, regarding the secular advantages of the colony, we cannot speak.
Leading Articles on Various SubjectsHugh Miller
Valuable modern and secular books have been added to these collections from time to time.
Aztec LandMaturin M. Ballou
Boye was a gifted writer, both on secular and religious themes.
Hymns and Hymnwriters of DenmarkJens Christian Aaberg
It must not, however, be supposed that New England had no secular music.
Annals of Music in AmericaHenry Charles Lahee
secular
- of or relating to worldly as opposed to sacred things; temporal
- not concerned with or related to religion
- not within the control of the Church
- (of an education, etc)
- having no particular religious affinities
- not including compulsory religious studies or services
- (of clerics) not bound by religious vows to a monastic or other order
- occurring or appearing once in an age or century
- lasting for a long time
- astronomy occurring slowly over a long period of timethe secular perturbation of a planet's orbit
- a member of the secular clergy
- another word for layman
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for secular
adj.
c.1300, "living in the world, not belonging to a religious order," also "belonging to the state," from Old French seculer (Modern French séculier), from Late Latin saecularis "worldly, secular, pertaining to a generation or age," from Latin saecularis "of an age, occurring once in an age," from saeculum "age, span of time, generation."
According to Watkins, this is probably from PIE *sai-tlo-, with instrumental element *-tlo- + *sai- "to bind, tie" (see sinew), extended metaphorically to successive human generations as links in the chain of life. Another theory connects it with words for "seed," from PIE root *se- "to sow" (see sow (v.), and cf. Gothic mana-seþs "mankind, world," literally "seed of men").
Used in ecclesiastical writing like Greek aion "of this world" (see cosmos). It is source of French siècle. Ancient Roman ludi saeculares was a three-day, day-and-night celebration coming once in an "age" (120 years). In English, in reference to humanism and the exclusion of belief in God from matters of ethics and morality, from 1850s.
secular
Not concerned with religion or religious matters. Secular is the opposite of sacred.