secularize
Americanverb (used with object)
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secularizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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secularized,
past participle, past
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secularizing
present participle
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to make secular; separate from religious or spiritual connection or influences; make worldly or unspiritual; imbue with secularism.
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to change (clergy) from regular to secular.
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to transfer (property) from ecclesiastical to civil possession or use.
verb
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to change from religious or sacred to secular functions, etc
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to dispense from allegiance to a religious order
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law to transfer (property) from ecclesiastical to civil possession or use
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English legal history to transfer (an offender) from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts to that of the civil courts for the imposition of a more severe punishment
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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secularizesimple
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secularizessimple
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have secularizedperfect
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has secularizedperfect
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am secularizingprogressive
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are secularizingprogressive
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is secularizingprogressive
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have been secularizingperfect progressive
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has been secularizingperfect progressive
Past
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secularizedsimple
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had secularizedperfect
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was secularizingprogressive
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were secularizingprogressive
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had been secularizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of secularize
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:
In 2019, he was elected to Israel’s governing body, the Knesset, as a member of the Balad party, an Arab party that strives to secularize Israel.
From Slate ● Oct. 13, 2023
He contends that it will help secularize a province in which the Catholic Church long exerted outsize sway.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 19, 2021
In what direction have they taken their cultural quest to secularize the world?
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2021
In the 1920s, the Mexican government’s attempt to secularize the country sparks a rebellion known as the Cristero War.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2020
The magnificent Archdeacon was expected by King Henry to lead the same life when Archbishop, and thus to secularize the Church.
From Cameos from English History, from Rollo to Edward II by Charlotte Mary Yonge
Whatever mix best secularizes the value of a given bundle.
From New York Times ● Jul. 11, 2016
Doctorow simply secularizes that prophecy into supine universal unconcern, ecological devastation and the nuclear holocaust.
From Time Magazine Archive
Are the women in Vermeer’s light-filled interiors cryptic embodiments of Collegiant doctrine or secularized Jesuit motifs?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Hospitals were secularized, orphanages and parish schools closed or often transformed into prep schools for rich kids causing the Church to relinquish much of its relevancy in the daily lives of Catholics.
From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2024
“You could make the argument that it … in the secularized form over the centuries becomes just a general principle that the morally correct person is somebody who doesn’t waste their time.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 15, 2024
He was candid in conceding a decline of faith in the increasingly secularized developed world.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2022
In 1801 the bishopric was secularized and in 1803 was granted to Prussia; in 1807 it was incorporated with the kingdom of Westphalia and in 1813 was transferred to Hanover.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" by Various
The debate mirrors arguments playing out in faiths across a rapidly secularizing America, pitting the upholding of traditions against the need for more inclusive outreach.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 2, 2022
This was followed by a period of top-down secularizing reforms under the military officer-turned-king Reza Shah, who banned the wearing of the veil in public in the 1930s.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 27, 2022
“I wouldn’t say he had an interest in secularizing it,” Duncan said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2022
“The secularizing shifts evident in American society so far in the 21st-century show no signs of slowing,” wrote Gregory A. Smith, Pew’s associate director of research.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 14, 2021
It was by the Natalia that Hijar, Director of Colonization, arrived for the purpose of secularizing the missions; and his scheme was soon accomplished.
From In the Footprints of the Padres by Charles Warren Stoddard
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.
