secular
UK/ˈsɛkjʊlə//ˈsɛkjələɹ/
secular adjective: not specifically religious; lay or civil, as opposed to clerical.
Adjective
secular (comparative more secular, superlative most secular)
- Not specifically religious; lay or civil, as opposed to clerical.
- Synonyms:
- areligious, temporal, worldly
- Antonyms:
- nonsecular, religious, sacred
- Temporal; worldly, or otherwise not based on something timeless.
- Synonyms:
- chronological
- Antonyms:
- nonsecular
- Not bound by the vows of a religious order.
- Near-synonym: nonmonastic
- secular clergy in Catholicism
- Synonyms:
- nonmonastic
- Antonyms:
- monastic, nonsecular, regular
- Happening once in an age or century.
- Near-synonyms: centurial, centennial
- The secular games of ancient Rome were held to mark the end of a saeculum and the beginning of the next.
- Synonyms:
- centurial, centennial
- Antonyms:
- nonsecular
- Continuing over a long period of time.
- The long-term growth in population and income accounts for most secular trends in economic phenomena.
- on a secular basis
- Synonyms:
- long-term, nonsecular
- Antonyms:
- short-term, cyclical
- Centuries-old, ancient.
- 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.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)
- Synonyms:
- plurisecular, multisecular, nonsecular
- Relating to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion or magnetic field.
- 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.2003, E. T. Jaynes, Probability Theory: The Logic of Science, Cambridge University Press, pages 234–235
- Antonyms:
- nonsecular
- Unperturbed over time.
- The secular A and nonsecular B parts of hyperfine interaction for any particular frequencies ν_α and ν_β are derived from eqn.(21) by ...2000, S. A. Dikanov, Two-dimensional ESEEM Spectroscopy, in New Advances in Analytical Chemistry (Atta-ur-Rahman, ed.), page 539
- Antonyms:
- nonsecular
Noun
secular (plural seculars)
- A secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.
- On further examination, I found the clergy, in general, persons of moderate minds and decorous manners : I include the seculars, and the regulars of both sexes1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC
- A church official whose functions are confined to the vocal department of the choir.
- A layman, as distinguished from a clergyman.
Proper noun capitalized: Secular
Secular (plural Seculars)
- A surname.
secular meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
secular in Hindi
- not specifically religious
- पन्थनिरपेक्ष panthanirpekṣ
secular in Tamil
- மதச்சார்பற்ற, மதச்சார்பற்றவர்
secular in Marathi
- secular
- धर्मनिरपेक्ष dharmanirapekṣa
secular in Urdu
- not specifically religious
- دُنیاوی duniyāvī, علمانی ilmānī
More languagesFewer languages
- secular in Bengali
- সেকুলার śekular
- secular in Telugu
- లౌకిక
- secular in Malayalam
- മതേതര matētara
- secular in Kannada
- ಪ್ರಾಪಂಚಿಕ, ಐಹಿಕ, ಸಾಂಸಾರಿಕ, ಪಾರಮಾರ್ಥಿಕವಲ್ಲದ
- secular in Punjabi
- ਧਰਮ ਨਿਰਪੱਖ, ਧਰਮ-ਨਿਰਪੱਖ
- secular in Gujarati
- બિનસાંપ્રદાયિક, ધર્મનિરપેક્ષ
- secular in Odia
- ଧର୍ମନିରପେକ୍ଷ
- secular in Nepali
- धर्मनिरपेक्ष
- secular in Tagalog
- banwahanin
- secular in Arabic
- دُنْيَوِيّ dunyawiyy, عَلْمَانِيّ ʕalmāniyy
- secular in Malay
- sekular
- secular in Indonesian
- sekuler, sekulir
- secular in Persian
- دنیوی donyavi, سکولار sekulâr
- secular in Thai
- ทางโลก taang-lôok
- secular in Vietnamese
- thế tục
Examples of secular in a sentence
- The skewed distribution of productivity gains is thus less a new phenomenon than a secular trend.2006, “Economics focus: Dividing the pie”, in The Economist:
- The timing of the secular change in the labor wedge coincides with the changing nature of fluctuations that we saw in the data post-1985.2025 December, Marina Azzimonti, Per Krusell, Alisdair McKay, Toshihiko Mukoyama, Macroeconomics, December 2025 edition, retrieved 13 Jul...
Synonyms of secular
- areligious
- temporal
- worldly
- chronological
- nonmonastic
- centurial
- centennial
- long-term
- nonsecular
- plurisecular
11 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of secular
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more secular |
| superlative | most secular |
| alternative form (archaic) | sæcular |
| Noun | |
| plural | seculars |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Seculars |
Origin of secular
From Middle English seculer, from Old French seculer, from Latin saeculāris (“of the age”), from saeculum.
Words formed from secular
- antisecular
- intersecular
- intrasecular
- multisecular
- palaeosecular
- paleosecular
- plurisecular
- postsecular
- presecular
- pro-secular
- pseudosecular
- secular arm
- secular clergy
- secular equilibrium
- secularisation
- secularism
- secularist
- secularity
- secularization
- secularize
- secularly
- secularness
- secular progressivism
- secular religion
- secular resonance
- Secular Zionism
- semisecular
- sickular
- supersecular
- unsecular
Phrases with secular
Questions about secular
- What does secular mean?
- Secular means not specifically religious; lay or civil, as opposed to clerical.
- What is secular in Hindi?
- Secular in Hindi is पन्थनिरपेक्ष (panthanirpekṣ). See Secular meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use secular in a sentence?
- The skewed distribution of productivity gains is thus less a new phenomenon than a secular trend.
- What part of speech is secular?
- Secular can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce secular?
- Secular is pronounced /ˈsɛkjʊlə/ (UK).
Words near secular in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: secular (page history and authors); Secular (page history and authors); secular (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); धर्मनिरपेक्ष (Marathi) (page history and authors); সেকুলার (Bengali) (page history and authors); secular (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); secular (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); secular (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); secular (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); secular (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); secular (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-secular.ogg.
Cite this entry: “secular.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/secular. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.