as in temporal
not involving religion or religious matters
that's an issue for the secular authorities, not the church
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Recent Examples of secular
Ross Douthat, Mercury News, 14 May 2025
And the close proximity of these wonderfully different secular and religious worlds make both easy to savor on even a short trip to Israel.
—Michael Goldstein, Forbes.com, 13 May 2025
Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2023
These data imply to me that the secular are getting idiocratic faster than the fundamentalists.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 16 Aug. 2012
See All Example Sentences for secular
Adjective
Meanwhile, the religious order of the Western world is arguably post-Christian but not especially secular.
—Ross Douthat, Mercury News, 14 May 2025
And the close proximity of these wonderfully different secular and religious worlds make both easy to savor on even a short trip to Israel.
—Michael Goldstein, Forbes.com, 13 May 2025
Noun
There was a change of heart among the secular nationalists during the second intifada—which started in 2000 and ended in 2005—in which seculars also joined forces.
—Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 10 Mar. 2023
These data imply to me that the secular are getting idiocratic faster than the fundamentalists.
—Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 16 Aug. 2012
See All Example Sentences for secular
Recent Examples of Synonyms for secular
Adjective
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Symmetry through recurrent objects entered in the frame is common, with temporal match-cuts employed to take us from day to night, or even sunlight to surrounding snow.—
David Katz,
IndieWire,
18 May 2025
-
The temporal system divides daylight into six variable-length periods that vary with the season.—
Garth Friesen,
Forbes.com,
16 May 2025
Noun
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Ludacris praises Miller for his affable personality and his ability to explain things in layman’s terms.—
Todd Longwell,
Variety,
9 Apr. 2025
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In layman’s terms, this means that DEB uses plant sugars and natural enzymes to create biobased materials (such as biopolymers) in eco-friendly conditions.—
Alexandra Harrell,
Sourcing Journal,
3 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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The enduring draw of karma The concept of karma is rooted in the worldview of many Asian religious traditions, like Hinduism and Buddhism, but it’s also become prevalent in other places, including nonreligious communities.—
Angela Haupt,
Time,
1 May 2025
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Founded in 2015, the church offers weekly Sunday meetings for a couple dozen participants who share in leading sermons in relation to their commitment to secular humanism, a nonreligious worldview that rejects belief in the supernatural.—
Morgan Shipley,
The Conversation,
31 Oct. 2022
Noun
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For a medicine to be granted OTC status, it must be deemed sufficiently safe to do so without monitoring from a medical professional, be effective, and include labeling understandable to the layperson to ensure proper use.—
Joshua P. Cohen,
Forbes.com,
6 May 2025
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And again, there were a lot of medical professionals, or at least those who were trained to be there at the marathon, and laypersons, too, who just knew what to do, who placed tourniquets on immediately.—
Maria Fontoura,
Rolling Stone,
5 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Secular.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/secular. Accessed 23 May. 2025.
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