secular

comparative more secular · superlative most secular · alternative archaic sæcular

1. Not specifically religious; lay or civil, as opposed to clerical.

   Synonyms: areligious, temporal, worldly · Antonyms: nonsecular, religious, sacred

2. Temporal; worldly, or otherwise not based on something timeless.

   Synonyms: chronological · Antonyms: nonsecular

3. ChristianityNot bound by the vows of a religious order.

   Near-synonym: nonmonastic

   1 more example

   secular clergy in Catholicism

   Synonyms: nonmonastic · Antonyms: monastic, nonsecular, regular

4. Happening once in an age or century.

   Near-synonyms: centurial, centennial

   1 more example

   The secular games of ancient Rome were held to mark the end of a saeculum and the beginning of the next.

   Synonyms: centurial, centennial · Antonyms: nonsecular

5. Continuing over a long period of time.

   on a secular basis

   5 more examples

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

   In this event, the s#92;phi(k) curve in Fig. 15.5 will be subject to a secular upward shift, resulting in successively higher intersections with the #92;lambdak ray and also in larger values of #92;bark.

   2005, Alpha Chiang, Kevin Wainwright, Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill International, page 501

   The skewed distribution of productivity gains is thus less a new phenomenon than a secular trend.

   2006, “Economics focus: Dividing the pie”, in The Economist

   The timing of the secular change in the labor wedge coincides with the changing nature of fluctuations that we saw in the data post-1985.

   2025 December 28, Marina Azzimonti, Per Krusell, Alisdair McKay, Toshihiko Mukoyama, Macroeconomics, December 2025 edition, retrieved 13 Jul 2026, page 437

   Growing evidence indicates a secular, age-independent decline in testosterone levels across populations, a trend associated with reduced fertility, metabolic and cardiovascular dysfunction, mood disturbances, and impaired quality of life.

   2026 January 9, “Understanding the Secular Decline in Testosterone: Mechanisms, Consequences, and Clinical Perspectives”, in International Journal of Molecular Sciences, volume 27, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, page 692

   Synonyms: long-term, nonsecular · Antonyms: short-term, cyclical

6. literaryCenturies-old, ancient.

   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.

   1899 April, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MII, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part III (Conclusion)

   Synonyms: plurisecular, multisecular, nonsecular

7. astrophysicsRelating to long-term non-periodic irregularities, especially in planetary motion or magnetic field.

   Laplace (1749–1827) "saved the world" by using probability theory to estimate the parameters accurately enough to show that the drift of Jupiter was not secular after all; the observations at hand had covered only a fraction of a cycle of an oscillation with a period of about 880 years.

   2003, E. T. Jaynes, Probability Theory: The Logic of Science, Cambridge University Press, pages 234–235

   Antonyms: nonsecular

8. atomic physicsUnperturbed over time.

   The secular A and nonsecular B parts of hyperfine interaction for any particular frequencies ν_α and ν_β are derived from eqn.(21) by ...

   2000, S. A. Dikanov, Two-dimensional ESEEM Spectroscopy, in New Advances in Analytical Chemistry (Atta-ur-Rahman, ed.), page 539

   Antonyms: nonsecular

plural seculars · alternative archaic sæcular

1. A secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.

   On further examination, I found the clergy, in general, persons of moderate minds and decorous manners : I include the seculars, and the regulars of both sexes

   1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC

2. A church official whose functions are confined to the vocal department of the choir.
3. A layman, as distinguished from a clergyman.

plural Seculars

1. A surname.