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Secular vs Semisecular - What's the difference?

secular | semisecular |

As adjectives the difference between secular and semisecular

is that secular is not specifically religious while semisecular is somewhat secular.

As a noun secular

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

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

    * ----

    semisecular

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Somewhat secular.
  • * 2005 , Terance D. Miethe, Hong Lu, Punishment: a comparative historical perspective
    • The kingdom of Saudi Arabia provides a good example of the application of Islamic law in a semisecular legal system.