secularization

noun

sec·​u·​lar·​i·​za·​tion ˌse-kyə-lə-rə-ˈzā-shən 

: the act or process of making something secular or of becoming secular : removal from ecclesiastical or clerical use or influence

… the secularization of the convent next to his house on the Connecticut shore …

—William R. Everdell

Because of this disarming of church and clergy, when the young people of New England began to kick up their heels in the last decades of the eighteenth century there was no church power to do more than scold them. The real sexual revolution in early America was the secularization of morality.

—Edmund S. Morgan

The current model of school secularization is built on the premise that the removal of controversial worldview perspectives produces a neutral secular school.

—Craig S. Engelhardt

Examples of secularization in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Past Does secularization cause population decline? —Big Think, 24 June 2024

Internally, Iran grappled with rising secularization, putting society at odds with the government. —Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar, Foreign Affairs, 24 May 2024

Conservative Sunni Muslim countries often see the kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, as the bulwark against Western secularization. —Iqbal Akhtar, The Conversation, 25 July 2023

David Campbell, a Notre Dame professor who studies secularization and secular people, questioned Del Turco’s conclusion. —Joy Ashford, Dallas News, 4 Aug. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1699, in the meaning defined above