# secular

Pronunciation: US say "SEK-yuh-lur" /ˈsɛkjələɹ/; UK say "SEK-yuu-luh" /ˈsɛkjʊlə/

## Adjective

1. Not specifically religious; relating to civil or lay life rather than to the church or clergy.
   - Simple: Not connected to religion, and about everyday public life rather than the church.
   - _The new constitution established a secular state separate from any official religion._
   - _Many secular charities provide aid without promoting religious beliefs._
2. Worldly or temporal; concerned with the present world rather than with eternal or timeless things.
   - Simple: To do with the everyday world, not with things that are eternal or holy.
   - _The poem contrasts secular ambition with the soul's eternal longing._
   - _Medieval thinkers often ranked secular pursuits below spiritual ones._
3. Continuing or persisting over a long period of time; long-term.
   - Simple: Lasting or continuing for a very long time.
   - _Analysts described a secular decline in newspaper circulation across the decade._
   - _The region experienced secular population growth lasting generations._
4. Of a member of the clergy, not bound by the vows or rule of a monastic order.
   - Simple: Belonging to the ordinary clergy, not bound by a monastery's vows.
   - _Secular canons administered the cathedral without taking monastic vows._
   - _The bishop ordained several secular priests for the rural parishes._
7. Occurring once in an age, or once in a century.
   - Simple: Happening only once in a very long age or century.
   - _The emperor revived the secular games to mark the dawn of a new age._
   - _A secular rite of this kind recurred only at the turn of each century._
8. Having existed for centuries; age-old, ancient. *(literary)*
   - Simple: Very old, having lasted for hundreds of years.
   - _The poet wandered among secular forests untouched since antiquity._
   - _Secular stones marked the boundary long before the village had a name._
9. Concerned with slow, long-term deviations that do not recur in regular cycles, especially in the motion of planets or in a magnetic field.
   - Simple: Describing slow, one-way changes over a very long time, such as in planets or magnetic fields.
   - _The secular variation of the geomagnetic field is mapped by observatories worldwide._
   - _Astronomers model the secular perturbations that slowly reshape the asteroid's orbit._
10. Remaining unperturbed, or stable, over time.
   - Simple: Staying the same over time without being disturbed.
   - _In the secular limit, the fast oscillations average out and the populations stay constant._
   - _Physicists treat the system as secular when its slow variables dominate._

## Noun

5. A layperson, as distinguished from a member of the clergy.
   - Simple: An ordinary person who is not a priest or member of the clergy.
   - _The chapter admitted no secular to its private deliberations._
   - _A secular could not perform the rites reserved for ordained priests._
6. A member of the clergy not bound by monastic rules; a secular ecclesiastic.
   - Simple: A member of the clergy who does not live under monastery rules.
   - _The cathedral was staffed by seculars rather than members of an order._
   - _A secular might own property that a monk's vows forbade._
11. A church official whose duties are limited to singing in the choir.
   - Simple: A church singer whose only job is to sing in the choir.
   - _The cathedral employed a secular solely to strengthen the choir's voices._
   - _A secular held no duty beyond singing the daily offices._

## Origin

From Middle English seculer, from Old French seculer, from Latin saeculāris ("of the age"), which comes from saeculum.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/secular (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).