excommunication

noun

ex·​com·​mu·​ni·​ca·​tion ˌek-skə-ˌmyü-nə-ˈkā-shən How to pronounce excommunication (audio)
1
: an ecclesiastical censure depriving a person of the rights of church membership
2
: exclusion from fellowship in a group or community
excommunicative adjective

Examples of excommunication in a Sentence

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The second trip was in 2000, when the society was still relatively small, as a gesture of fidelity to Rome despite then-standing excommunications against their bishops. Timothy Nerozzi, The Washington Examiner, 14 Aug. 2025 Kincaid had already begun cultivating an array of overlapping, perennial obsessions: matriarchal power and mothers (specifically her own), banishment and excommunication from family structures, the British empire, colonial literary education, Antigua, and travel. Book Marks august 7, Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2025 Cardinal electors must sign an oath of secrecy and seclusion, under threat of excommunication. Daniel Burke, NPR, 6 May 2025 And the leadership at Egypt’s al-Azhar, the world’s leading Sunni seminary and academic institution, repudiated the dominant Saudi discourse on sectarianism—the excommunication of Shiites—and strongly defended Shiism as a mainstream Muslim denomination. Payam Mohseni, Foreign Affairs, 24 Jan. 2017 See All Example Sentences for excommunication

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of excommunication was in the 15th century

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Cite this Entry

“Excommunication.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excommunication. Accessed 4 Sep. 2025.

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