Definition of "secular" in Anglais

adjective

1. Not specifically religious; lay or civil, as opposed to clerical.

2. Temporal; worldly, or otherwise not based on something timeless.

3. (Christianity) Not bound by the vows of a religious order.

   • Near-synonym: nonmonastic
   • secular clergy in Catholicism

4. Happening once in an age or century.

   • The secular games of ancient Rome were held to mark the end of a saeculum and the beginning of the next.

5. Continuing over a long period of time.

   • The long-term growth in population and income accounts for most secular trends in economic phenomena.
   • on a secular basis

6. (literary) Centuries-old, ancient.

7. (astrophysics, geology) Relating to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion or magnetic field.

8. (atomic physics) Unperturbed over time.

   • The secular A and nonsecular B parts of hyperfine interaction for any particular frequencies ν_α and ν_β are derived from eqn.(21) by ...

noun

1. A secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.

2. A church official whose functions are confined to the vocal department of the choir.

3. A layman, as distinguished from a clergyman.