How to Use excommunication in a Sentence

excommunication

noun
  • Those who asked questions loud enough to be heard risked excommunication on charges of heresy.
    Ted Ladd, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2023
  • The play was decried as heresy by the French Roman Catholic Church, which banned it and threatened those who watched or performed it with excommunication.
    David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Mar. 2024
  • By the time the two women escaped and reunited weeks later with Ms. Jesmin’s husband in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, the excommunication had begun.
    New York Times, 7 July 2018
  • The Vatican, wanting to keep the piece to itself, threatened excommunication for anyone who copied down the score.
    Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 29 Mar. 2013
  • The Bishop of Quebec ordered the excommunication of any French trader who sold liquor to the Indians.
    Longreads, 29 Aug. 2017
  • Such views, along with Luther’s refusal to renounce them, resulted in his excommunication from the Catholic Church.
    Kristin E. Holmes, Philly.com, 27 Oct. 2017
  • At the time, one of the pope’s chief sources of power was excommunication, which essentially kicked someone out of the church and, by extension, heaven.
    Lanta Davis and Vince Reighard, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Mar. 2024
  • But amid all the arcana and arms deals, the enemies and excommunications, the series had a few key sustaining constants.
    Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 22 Mar. 2023
  • While not a lifelong ban, excommunication is a rare move that amounts to the harshest punishment available for a church member.
    Brady McCombs, Fox News, 16 Sep. 2018
  • Bannon, ousted from the White House in August, has seen his excommunication finalized in the book’s wake.
    Tory Newmyer, Washington Post, 8 Jan. 2018
  • Under the deal, Zhan, in turn, would have his excommunication lifted by Pope Francis.
    Nicole Winfield, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Mar. 2018
  • His racial worldview has cost him jobs and led to his excommunication from his Orthodox Christian church.
    Marwa Eltagouri, chicagotribune.com, 14 Mar. 2018
  • The trio of Jane Doe accusers testified they were threatened with excommunication and told not to go to the police with their accusations.
    Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Feb. 2023
  • To those doubters, Trump has a clear message: excommunication.
    Philip Elliott, Time, 1 Mar. 2021
  • This is an account of his excommunication from the inner circle by his friend of many years, the designer Karl Lagerfeld, before Lagerfeld died in 2019.
    Rumaan Alam, The New Republic, 19 May 2020
  • What’s more compelling is once again hearing about her affair with her brother-in-law and the excommunication and rebaptism that followed.
    Tom Smyth, Vulture, 2 Jan. 2024
  • It must be reported to the Vatican and can carry the penalty of excommunication.
    Nicole Winfield, Houston Chronicle, 7 June 2019
  • There’s a flashback to Ron going to his parents’ house right after his excommunication.
    Scott D. Pierce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 20 May 2022
  • To that end, the power that Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger bring is their personal stories of defiance and excommunication.
    Jonathan Weisman, New York Times, 1 Nov. 2022
  • Kaepernick’s protest — first sitting, then kneeling, during the anthem — and his subsequent excommunication from the NFL, sowed division among the league’s fans and, in the eyes of many, cheapened this weekend’s statement.
    Zach Osterman, The Indianapolis Star, 31 May 2020
  • Prince added that excommunications are more common in the Mormon Church, however.
    Michelle Boorstein, Washington Post, 8 Aug. 2017
  • In this scenario, the Church’s supreme authority will have no other option than to declare the excommunication publicly.
    Fr. Goran Jovicic, National Review, 13 June 2021
  • In Heretics, Spinoza also served as the paradigmatic recipient of excommunication, an example of the terrible fate of those who run afoul of dogma.
    Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 31 May 2017
  • Local lay leaders could choose to take no action, restrict her membership or withdraw it (the latter penalty used to be termed excommunication).
    Kathy Stephenson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 16 Apr. 2021
  • The church holds the seal of confession to be inviolable, on pain of excommunication, and Holy See officials have urged the church in Australia to oppose legal changes targeting the confessional seal.
    Rob Taylor, WSJ, 31 Aug. 2018
  • Breaking it for any reason is a grave sin punishable by excommunication.
    Rob Taylor and, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2018
  • A small stream of Socialist members of Parliament have signed on, despite threats of excommunication from the party, as well as some business and political leaders.
    Adam Nossiter, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2017
  • On a different show, such a misstep might be more explosive, resulting in excommunication or insults that can’t be taken back.
    Selome Hailu, Variety, 14 July 2022
  • Yet Marlin makes clear that excommunication was never a real threat but rather one that Cuomo shrewdly used to turn himself into a victim of pharisaical bishops.
    Vincent J. Cannato, National Review, 7 Nov. 2020
  • Roman Catholics who join the Masonic Fraternity are subject to excommunication, and as such, denied the sacraments.
    Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 14 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'excommunication.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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