as in temporal
not involving religion or religious matters
that's an issue for the secular authorities, not the church
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Recent Examples of secular
Tony Zhang, CNBC, 31 Dec. 2025
The spaces tells the story of the German religious separatists who founded the southern Indiana town in 1814 and the secular community focused on social, labor and education reform that moved there later.
—Domenica Bongiovanni, IndyStar, 30 Dec. 2025
Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2023
His selection of works, for example, mixed the sacred with the secular, interspersing chorale preludes (which use Lutheran hymns as their point of departure) with the six trio sonatas for organ.
—Luke Schulze, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Dec. 2022
See All Example Sentences for secular
Adjective
Zoom is generating free cash flow at levels more commonly associated with mature software leaders, not companies priced for secular decline.
—Noun
There was a change of heart among the secular nationalists during the second intifada—which started in 2000 and ended in 2005—in which seculars also joined forces.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for secular
Adjective
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The researchers were trying to test a concept known as temporal discontinuity, in which a brief amount of time passes between the introduction of an item and the assignment of its name.—
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Of course, school felt like a temporal abyss for a lot of young people, especially those who were violently singled out for their differences.—
Noun
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So these two feel like the perfect guides to help a layman understand the Musk phenomenon.—
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Space is full of mysteries that can't be easily explained by the layman, and this latest one from a isn't likely to sour anyone on their fascination with space.—
Adjective
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Kwanzaa is a nonreligious, secular holiday that is mainly celebrated in North America and the Caribbean.—
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Many children raised by devout parents and teachers still embrace their parents’ beliefs, but ever-fewer young people raised in less committed or entirely nonreligious families and schools espouse religious faith.—
Noun
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Both Boyd and Sereno say that some of the terminology in their field could confuse a layperson.—
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Why OpenAI wants massive computing power The kind of numbers OpenAI and friends throw around—10 gigawatts here, $500 billion there—are somewhat staggering and mind-boggling in scope for the layperson who might not be familiar with the massive scale of Internet infrastructure.—
Cite this Entry
“Secular.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/secular. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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