secular

About 12.11 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. adjective Not specifically religious; lay or civil, as opposed to clerical.
2. adjective Temporal; worldly, or otherwise not based on something timeless.
3. adjective Not bound by the vows of a religious order.

   secular clergy in Catholicism

4. adjective 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. adjective Continuing over a long period of time.

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

6. adjective Centuries-old, ancient.
7. adjective Relating to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion or magnetic field.
8. adjective Unperturbed over time.

Similar words

laic profane lay layman layperson laical secularism neutral outsider secularist

Often followed by

and state clergy education power world society or trend

Word family

secularities secularity secularly seculars