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

Saints Peter & Paul Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, located near Little Havana, has been at the center of a years-long dispute over property and parish control which led to dueling lawsuits, accusations of fraud and the excommunication of long-standing parish leaders. —Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald, 9 Apr. 2026

Filaret led a rival Orthodox movement in Ukraine, a step that provoked his excommunication by the Russian church, but attracted a growing following at home, particularly after Ukraine regained its independence. —Katya Soldak, Forbes.com, 24 Mar. 2026

Hailey recalled a ‘dramatic excommunication’ following their first breakup. —Christina Perrier, InStyle, 1 Feb. 2026

For its part, Housewives has sugarcoated neither Gay’s clashes with the Mormon Church and subsequent estrangement from some friends and family members, nor the painful excommunication of her castmate and cousin Whitney Rose. —Judy Berman, Time, 12 Nov. 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