Wiktionary

secular

See also: Secular

English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English seculer, from Old French seculer, from Latin saeculāris (“of the age”), from saeculum.

Pronunciation edit

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈsɛkjʊlə/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈsɛkjələɹ/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Adjective edit

secular (comparative more secular, superlative most secular)

  1. Not specifically religious; lay or civil, as opposed to clerical.
  2. Temporal; worldly, or otherwise not based on something timeless.
  3. (Christianity) Not bound by the vows of a monastic order.
    secular clergy in Catholicism
  4. Happening once in an age or century.
    The secular games of ancient Rome were held to mark the end of a saeculum and the beginning of the next.
  5. Continuing over a long period of time, long-term.
    The long-term growth in population and income accounts for most secular trends in economic phenomena.
    on a secular basis
    • 2005, Alpha Chiang and Kevin Wainwright, Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics (4th ed.), McGraw-Hill International, p. 501
      In this event, the   curve in Fig. 15.5 will be subject to a secular upward shift, resulting in successively higher intersections with the   ray and also in larger values of  .
    • 2006, “Economics focus: Dividing the pie”, in The Economist‎[1]:
      The skewed distribution of productivity gains is thus less a new phenomenon than a secular trend.
  6. (literary) Centuries-old, ancient.
    • 1899 April, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MII, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part III (Conclusion):
      The long reaches that were like one and the same reach, monotonous bends that were exactly alike, slipped past the steamer with their multitude of secular trees looking patiently after this grimy fragment of another world, the forerunner of change, of conquest, of trade, of massacres, of blessings.
  7. (astrophysics, geology) Relating to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion or magnetic field.
    • 2003, E. T. Jaynes, Probability Theory: The Logic of Science, Cambridge University Press, pages 234–235:
      Laplace (1749–1827) "saved the world" by using probability theory to estimate the parameters accurately enough to show that the drift of Jupiter was not secular after all; the observations at hand had covered only a fraction of a cycle of an oscillation with a period of about 880 years.
  8. (atomic physics) Unperturbed over time.
    • 2000, S. A. Dikanov, Two-dimensional ESEEM Spectroscopy, in New Advances in Analytical Chemistry (Atta-ur-Rahman, ed.), page 539
      The secular A and nonsecular B parts of hyperfine interaction for any particular frequencies να and νβ are derived from eqn.(21) by ...

Synonyms edit

Antonyms edit

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Noun edit

secular (plural seculars)

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

Translations edit

References edit

  1. ^ 1817, Thomas Busby, A Dictionary of Music, Theoretical and Practical

Anagrams edit

Catalan edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin saeculāris.

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

secular m or f (masculine and feminine plural seculars)

  1. secular

Derived terms edit

Further reading edit

Portuguese edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin saeculāris.

Pronunciation edit

 
 

  • Hyphenation: se‧cu‧lar

Adjective edit

secular m or f (plural seculares)

  1. secular

Derived terms edit

Further reading edit

Romanian edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from French séculaire, from Latin saecularis.

Adjective edit

secular m or n (feminine singular seculară, masculine plural seculari, feminine and neuter plural seculare)

  1. secular

Declension edit

Declension of secular
singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative/
accusative 		indefinite secular seculară seculari seculare
definite secularul seculara secularii secularele
genitive/
dative 		indefinite secular seculare seculari seculare
definite secularului secularei secularilor secularelor

Spanish edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin saeculāris. Doublet of seglar.

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /sekuˈlaɾ/ [se.kuˈlaɾ]
  • Rhymes: -aɾ
  • Syllabification: se‧cu‧lar

Adjective edit

secular m or f (masculine and feminine plural seculares)

  1. secular

Derived terms edit

Further reading edit

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