Word.ws English Dictionary

secular arm

Syllables: se·cul·ar arm/ˌsɛkjʊlə ˈɑːm/US/ˌsɛkjələɹ ˈɑɹm/

secular arm noun: the lay or temporal authority of a secular court to pronounce punishment (particularly capital punishment) of an offender tried by an ecclesiastical court.

Noun

secular arm (plural (rare) secular arms)

  1. (historical) The lay or temporal authority of a secular court to pronounce punishment (particularly capital punishment) of an offender tried by an ecclesiastical court.
    • The secular arm as a means by which lay power intervenes in ecclesiastical cases had two types: sought and unsought by the Church.
    • Then there's no more to be done, but to deliuer them vp to the ſecular arme of the olde vvife, and do not demaund the reaſon, for that vvere neuer to make an end.1612, [Miguel de Cervantes], “Of the Pleasant and Curious Search Made by the Curate and the Barber, of Don-Quixotes Library”, in Thomas Shelton, transl., The History of the Valorous and Wittie...

Forms of secular arm

plural (rare)secular arms

Origin of secular arm

From Late Middle English seculer arm, seculer arme (“civil authority or power”), a calque of Medieval Latin bracchium saeculāre (“(figurative) civil or lay power”), from Latin bracchium (“arm”) + saeculāre (neuter singular form of saeculāris (“profane, temporal, worldly”)).

Words that rhyme with secular arm

19 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about secular arm

What does secular arm mean?
Secular arm means the lay or temporal authority of a secular court to pronounce punishment (particularly capital punishment) of an offender tried by an ecclesiastical court.
What part of speech is secular arm?
Secular arm is a noun.
How do you pronounce secular arm?
Secular arm is pronounced /ˌsɛkjʊlə ˈɑːm/ (UK).

Words near secular arm in the dictionary

  1. secuhity
  2. Secuieni
  3. secukinumab
  4. secula
  5. secular
  6. secular arm
  7. secular arms
  8. secular clergy
  9. secular equilibria
  10. secular equilibrium
  11. secular equilibriums

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: secular arm (page history and authors). 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.

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