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

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

The penalty for violating this pledge is the church’s most severe punishment: excommunication, or being permanently separated from the life of the church. — Made By History, Time, 22 Apr. 2025

Faced with excommunication by the Catholic Church, Zaragoza rode his Vespa nine hours to Madrid for an audience with Spanish general Francisco Franco. —Joshua Korber Hoffman, CNN Money, 21 Apr. 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