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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



... Bishop in thus founding an institution on these lines for the study of Theology, is remarkable as illustrating the spirit of revolt from the absorption by monks and friars of all existing educational affairs. The College was strictly limited to secular clerks, who were "sent down" if they chose to join any of the regular Orders. The subsequent religious history of the College has had curious vicissitudes. Wycliff was a Fellow, and Merton stood by him in the face of the rest of Oxford. Then ...
— Oxford • Frederick Douglas How

... snow falls in each year than is melted on the spot. A portion of this is carried away by the wind before it is consolidated; a larger portion accumulates in hollows and depressions of the surface, and is gradually converted into glacier-ice, which descends by a slow secular motion into the deeper valleys, where it goes to swell perennial streams. As on a mountain the snow does not lie in beds of uniform thickness, and some parts are more exposed to the sun and warm winds than others, we commonly find beds of snow alternating with exposed slopes covered with ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... the keepers of the sacred books, or Vedas, the philosophy, science, and laws of the ancient Hindus (for that is how the power of the caste developed), but they were also the creators and custodians of its secular literature and art. Two and a half thousand years later Prince Gautama or Buddha died, after a life of self-sacrifice and sanctity. On his death five hundred of his disciples met in a cave near Rajagriha to gather together his sayings, and chanted the lessons of their great ...
— Critical & Historical Essays - Lectures delivered at Columbia University • Edward MacDowell

... convinced of the immorality of that person. He had a bluff jolly way of speaking, and was popular in his parish—a good cricketer, a still better fisherman, a fair shot, though, as he said, he could not really afford time for shooting. While disclaiming interference in secular matters, he watched the tendencies of his flock from a sound point of view, and especially encouraged them to support the existing order of things—the British Empire and the English Church. His cure was hereditary, and he fortunately possessed ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... Godhead, and despised the imitation of the incarnate Christ, were already throwing discredit on the movement. Mechthild's independence, and her unsparing denunciations of corruption in high places, brought her into conflict with the secular clergy. They tried to burn her books—those religious love songs which had already endeared her to German popular sentiment. It was then that she seemed to hear a voice ...
— Light, Life, and Love • W. R. Inge


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