- sec|u|lar
- sec|u|lar «SEHK yuh luhr», adjective, noun.–adj.1. connected with the world and its affairs; of things not religious or sacred; worldly: »
secular music, a secular education. Bishops now were great secular magistrates, and…were involved in secular occupations (Cardinal Newman).
2. living in the world; not belonging to a religious order: »a secular clergy, a secular priest.
3. occurring once in an age or century: »When Augustus celebrated the secular year, which was kept but once in a century... (Joseph Addison).
4. lasting through long ages; going on from age to age: »the secular cooling or refrigeration of the globe.
–n.1. a secular priest; clergyman living among the laity and not in a monastery: »While the Danish wars had been fatal to the monks—the “regular clergy” as they were called—they had also dealt heavy blows at the seculars, or parish priests (J. R. Green).
2. = layman. (Cf. ↑layman)
Useful english dictionary. 2012.