excommunication

noun

ex·​com·​mu·​ni·​ca·​tion ˌek-skə-ˌmyü-nə-ˈkā-shən 

1

: an ecclesiastical censure depriving a person of the rights of church membership

2

: exclusion from fellowship in a group or community

excommunicative

ˌek-skə-ˈmyü-nə-ˌkā-tiv 

-ni-kə-tiv

adjective

Examples of excommunication in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The ruling from Circuit Court Judge Lisa Walsh comes after a nearly three-year-long dispute that has led to dueling lawsuits, allegations of fraud and the excommunication of longtime parish leaders. —Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald, 5 June 2025

Archbishop Etienne echoed that stance, warning that priests who break the seal of confession face automatic excommunication. —Sophie Clark, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 May 2025

Breaking the oath of secrecy results in automatic excommunication from the church. —Lauren Kent, CNN Money, 7 May 2025

To further preserve the complete privacy of the conclave, the support staff — including chefs, cleaners and custodians — all took an oath of secrecy, of which the punishment for breaking it is excommunication, CBS News reported. —Rachel Raposas, People.com, 6 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for excommunication

• acclimatisation
• acclimatization
• acidification
• actualization
• annualization
• autocorrelation
• autoregulation
• beatification
• beneficiation
• biodegradation
• biotransformation
• bureaucratization