secular

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   of or relating to clergy not bound by monastic vows

   the secular clergy

2. 2
   adj

   Not bound by the vows of a religious order.

   Near-synonym: nonmonastic

3. 3
   adj

   Happening once in an age or century.

   Near-synonyms: centurial, centennial

4. 4
   adj

   Continuing over a long period of time.

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

5. 5
   adj

   Centuries-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.

6. 6
   adj

   Relating 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.

7. 7
   adj

   Unperturbed 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 ...

8. 8
   noun

   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

Etymology

From Middle English seculer, from Old French seculer, from Latin saeculāris (“of the age”), from saeculum.