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Secular   /sˈɛkjələr/   Listen
adjective
Secular  adj.  
1.
Coming or observed once in an age or a century. "The secular year was kept but once a century."
2.
Pertaining to an age, or the progress of ages, or to a long period of time; accomplished in a long progress of time; as, secular inequality; the secular refrigeration of the globe.
3.
Of or pertaining to this present world, or to things not spiritual or holy; relating to temporal as distinguished from eternal interests; not immediately or primarily respecting the soul, but the body; worldly. "New foes arise, Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains."
4.
(Eccl.) Not regular; not bound by monastic vows or rules; not confined to a monastery, or subject to the rules of a religious community; as, a secular priest. "He tried to enforce a stricter discipline and greater regard for morals, both in the religious orders and the secular clergy."
5.
Belonging to the laity; lay; not clerical. "I speak of folk in secular estate."
Secular equation (Astron.), the algebraic or numerical expression of the magnitude of the inequalities in a planet's motion that remain after the inequalities of a short period have been allowed for.
Secular games (Rom. Antiq.), games celebrated, at long but irregular intervals, for three days and nights, with sacrifices, theatrical shows, combats, sports, and the like.
Secular music, any music or songs not adapted to sacred uses.
Secular hymn or Secular poem, a hymn or poem composed for the secular games, or sung or rehearsed at those games.



noun
Secular  n.  
1.
(Eccl.) A secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.
2.
(Eccl.) A church official whose functions are confined to the vocal department of the choir.
3.
A layman, as distinguished from a clergyman.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Secular" Quotes from Famous Books



... indeed, was generally conferred upon the members of the second class of nobility, and very often upon those of the first. He was a judge, with royal and pontifical privileges, exempt from the authority of the bishop in ecclesiastical, and from the royal tribunals in secular, matters. His morals were sifted with the strictest scrutiny; and yet this dignified ecclesiastic is the person whom Le Sage represents as lying in the streets stupefied with intoxication, and this not from accident, but from habitual indulgence in a vice which, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844 • Various

... interest, the storm-center, as we call it in these days, turned every eye in her direction with speculative interest. Would she retire to the convent, or find her vocation in the world? She had more than fulfilled her father's wish that she remain in secular life for a year. Almost two years had passed. He could not ...
— The Art of Disappearing • John Talbot Smith

... as a visible incarnation of Santa Claus. They were the cheapest and most effective Christmas presents it was ever my pleasure to bestow. I hope to be forgiven for putting the church furniture to such a secular use. ...
— A Little Book for Christmas • Cyrus Townsend Brady

... Govind.—The first three successors of Nanak led the quiet lives of great eastern saints. They managed to keep on good terms with the Emperor and generally also with his local representatives. The fifth Guru, Arjan (1581-1606), began the welding of the Sikhs into a body fit to play a part in secular politics. He compiled their sacred book, known as the Granth Sahib, and made Amritsar the permanent centre of their faith. The tenets of these early Gurus chimed in with the liberal sentiments of Akbar, and he treated them kindly. Arjan was accused of helping Khusru, ...
— The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir • Sir James McCrone Douie

... on the contrary, it will seem that there is as much divinity in the best of the love-poems as in the best of the religious ones. Donne's last word as a secular poet may well be regarded as having been uttered in that great poem in celebration of lasting love, The Anniversary, which closes ...
— The Art of Letters • Robert Lynd


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