| English Dictionary |
SECULAR
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does secular mean?
• SECULAR (noun)
The noun SECULAR has 1 sense:
1. someone who is not a clergyman or a professional person
Familiarity information: SECULAR used as a noun is very rare.
• SECULAR (adjective)
The adjective SECULAR has 5 senses:
1. of or relating to the doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations
2. characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world
3. not concerned with or devoted to religion
4. of or relating to clergy not bound by monastic vows
5. characteristic of those who are not members of the clergy
Familiarity information: SECULAR used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Someone who is not a clergyman or a professional person
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Synonyms:
Hypernyms ("secular" is a kind of...):
common man; common person; commoner (a person who holds no title)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "secular"):
lay reader (a layman who is authorized by the bishop to read parts of the service in an Anglican or Episcopal church)
Holonyms ("secular" is a member of...):
laity; temporalty (in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of or relating to the doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Pertainym:
secularism (a doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world
Synonyms:
Context example:
temporal possessions of the church
Similar:
economic (concerned with worldly necessities of life (especially money))
material (concerned with worldly rather than spiritual interests)
materialistic; mercenary; worldly-minded (marked by materialism)
mundane; terrestrial (concerned with the world or worldly matters)
Also:
earthly (of or belonging to or characteristic of this earth as distinguished from heaven)
profane; secular (not concerned with or devoted to religion)
sophisticated (having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement and savoir-faire)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Not concerned with or devoted to religion
Synonyms:
profane; secular
Context example:
children being brought up in an entirely profane environment
Similar:
laic; lay; secular (characteristic of those who are not members of the clergy)
profanatory (profaning or tending to desecrate)
Also:
earthly (of or belonging to or characteristic of this earth as distinguished from heaven)
impious (lacking piety or reverence for a god)
secular; temporal; worldly (characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Of or relating to clergy not bound by monastic vows
Context example:
the secular clergy
Antonym:
religious (of or relating to clergy bound by monastic vows)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Characteristic of those who are not members of the clergy
Synonyms:
Context example:
the lay ministry
Similar:
profane; secular (not concerned with or devoted to religion)
Context examples
The combination of the Great Blue Spot, with its strong localized magnetic fields, and strong zonal winds at this latitude result in the largest secular variations in the field on the Jovian world.
(NASA's Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field, NASA)
It is incredible that one narrow magnetic hot spot, the Great Blue Spot, could be responsible for almost all of Jupiter's secular variation, but the numbers bear it out.
(NASA's Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field, NASA)
Nowhere was Jupiter's secular variation as large as at the planet's Great Blue Spot, an intense patch of magnetic field near Jupiter's equator.
(NASA's Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field, NASA)
Once the Juno team proved secular variation did occur, they sought to explain how such a change might come about.
(NASA's Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field, NASA)
Juno determined the gas giant's secular variation is most likely driven by the planet's deep atmospheric winds.
(NASA's Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field, NASA)
NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter made the first definitive detection beyond our world of an internal magnetic field that changes over time, a phenomenon called secular variation.
(NASA's Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field, NASA)
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