EXCOMMUNICATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does excommunicate mean? 

• EXCOMMUNICATE (verb)
  The verb EXCOMMUNICATE has 2 senses:

1. exclude from a church or a religious community

2. oust or exclude from a group or membership by decree

  Familiarity information: EXCOMMUNICATE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXCOMMUNICATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they excommunicate    ... he / she / it excommunicates   
Past simple: excommunicated   
Past participle: excommunicated   
-ing form: excommunicating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Exclude from a church or a religious community

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

curse; excommunicate; unchurch

Context example:

The gay priest was excommunicated when he married his partner

Hypernyms (to "excommunicate" is one way to...):

exclude; keep out; shut; shut out (prevent from entering; shut out)

Verb group:

excommunicate (oust or exclude from a group or membership by decree)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Antonym:

communicate (administer Communion; in church)

Derivation:

excommunication (the act of banishing a member of a church from the communion of believers and the privileges of the church; cutting a person off from a religious society)

excommunication (the state of being excommunicated)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Oust or exclude from a group or membership by decree

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "excommunicate" is one way to...):

boot out; drum out; expel; kick out; oust; throw out (remove from a position or office)

Verb group:

curse; excommunicate; unchurch (exclude from a church or a religious community)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

excommunication (the state of being excommunicated)

 Context examples 

However, we got him excommunicated for six weeks, and sentenced in no end of costs; and then the baker's proctor, and the judge, and the advocates on both sides (who were all nearly related), went out of town together, and Mr. Spenlow and I drove away in the phaeton.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We had an adjourned cause in the Consistory that day—about excommunicating a baker who had been objecting in a vestry to a paving-rate—and as the evidence was just twice the length of Robinson Crusoe, according to a calculation I made, it was rather late in the day before we finished.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)