secularize Hear it!

secularize Definition

secu·lar·ize (sek′yə lə rīz′)

transitive verb -·ized′, -·iz′·ing

    1. to change from religious to civil ownership or use
    2. to deprive of religious character, influence, or significance
    3. to convert to secularism
  2. to release by church authority from religious vows and from connection with a monastery or similar religious institute; give secular status to

Etymology: Fr séculariser < LL(Ec) saecularis: see secular

secularize Related Forms

sec′u·lari·za′·tion noun

secularize Usage Examples

Object

  • society: Indeed, it is possible to identify two basic lines of our current secularized society that are clearly interdependent.
  • world: In this secularized world his life is a cry, his purpose is a question and the way of his community is an answer.
  • religion: First, what he calls exoteric religion is not the same as what he criticizes as secularized religion.
  • version: His genius lay in embracing his followers in his fantasies of a modern, secularized version of the millenium.

Modifying Another Word

increasingly: They were, to use the term in the first quotation above, ' increasingly secularized ' .