What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Cynical vs Secular - What's the difference?

cynical | secular |

As adjectives the difference between cynical and secular

is that cynical is of or relating to the cynics, a sect of ancient greek philosophers who believed virtue to be the only good and self-control to be the only means of achieving virtue while secular is not specifically religious.

As a noun secular is

a secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.

cynical

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of or relating to the belief that human actions are motivated only or primarily by base desires or selfishness.
  • *(Samuel Johnson) (1709-1784)
  • *:I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received.
  • Skeptical of the integrity, sincerity, or motives of others.
  • Bitterly or jadedly distrustful or contemptuous; mocking.
  • *
  • *:He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark-for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.
  • Showing contempt for accepted moral standards by one's actions.
  • *
  • *:When he, at Neergard's cynical suggestion, had consented to exploit his own cluband had consented to resign from it to do so, he had every reason to believe that Neergard meant to either mulct them heavily or buy them out. In either case, having been useful to Neergard, his profits from the transaction would have been considerable.
  • Like the actions of a snarling dog.
  • :

    • References

    * * *

    secular

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (archaic)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not specifically religious.
  • Temporal; something that is worldly or otherwise not based on something timeless.
  • (Christianity) Not bound by the vows of a monastic order.
    • secular clergy in Catholicism
  • 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.
  • Continuing over a long period of time, long-term.
    • The long-term growth in population and income accounts for most secular trends in economic phenomena.
    ''on a secular basis
  • * 2006 , The Economist, Economics focus: Dividing the pie
    • The skewed distribution of productivity gains is thus less a new phenomenon than a secular trend.
  • (literary) Centuries-old, ancient.
  • * 1899 ,
    • The long reaches that were like one and the same reach, monotonous bends that were exactly alike, slipped past the steamer with their multitude of secular trees looking patiently after this grimy fragment of another world, the forerunner of change, of conquest, of trade, of massacres, of blessings.
  • (astrophysics) Of or pertaining to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion.
  • (atomic physics) Unperturbed over time.
  • * 2000 , S. A. Dikanov, Two-dimensional ESEEM Spectroscopy'', in ''New Advances in Analytical Chemistry (Atta-ur-Rahman, ed.), page 539
    • The secular A and nonsecular B parts of hyperfine interaction for any particular frequencies ?? and ?? are derived from eqn.(21) by ...

    Synonyms

    * (not religious) worldly

    Antonyms

    * nonsecular * (not religious) religious * (not religious) sacred (used especially of music) * (not bound by monastic vows) monastic * (not bound by monastic vows) regular (as regular clergy in Catholicism) * eternal, everlasting * frequent * unpredictable * non-recurring * (finance) short-term * (finance) cyclical

    References

    * Webster's English Dictionary

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.
    • (Burke)
  • A church official whose functions are confined to the vocal department of the choir.
    • (Busby)
  • A layman, as distinguished from a clergyman.

    • Anagrams

    * ----