nonclerical

adjective

Definition of nonclericalnext
as in lay

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for nonclerical
  1. lay
  2. godless
  3. irreligious
  4. pagan
  5. secular
  6. nondenominational
  7. nonsectarian
  8. temporal
Adjective
  • Tenzin, a lay Buddhist practitioner, insisted that Dokha’s land was fertile, producing oranges and other fruit.
    Muyi Xiao, New York Times, 10 Aug. 2024
  • The university's Board of Trustees unanimously elected Ah Yun, marking the first time a person of color will lead Marquette and just the second time a lay person is in charge.
    Kelly Meyerhofer, Journal Sentinel, 20 Nov. 2024
Definition of lay
Adjective
  • Clearly the most godless Man of God Garfield has played — the one-two of playing a televangelist here and a Mormon cop in Under the Banner of Heaven makes for a religious diptych that’s uniquely American. tick, tick … BOOM!
    Rory Doherty, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2024
  • His notoriously pornographic breakthrough novel, The Elementary Particles, trafficked in masturbation, flashing, orgies, and child rape but really amounted to a diatribe against a godless materialism.
    Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 24 Oct. 2024
Definition of godless
Adjective
  • Finishing off the top 5 is religious flick The Forge with an irreligious weekend take-home of $6.6.
    Bethy Squires, Vulture, 25 Aug. 2024
  • From its earliest days in the nineteenth century and until the Holocaust, the Orthodox rabbinate in eastern Europe was not enthusiastic about the Zionist movement, which at the time was led by irreligious Jews.
    Elliott Abrams, Foreign Affairs, 1 July 2011
Definition of irreligious
Adjective
  • Allen's defense team aggressively pushed their theory that Odinists, members of a pagan Norse religion hijacked by white nationalists, killed the girls during a sacrificial ritual in the woods.
    Kristine Phillips, The Indianapolis Star, 13 Nov. 2024
  • Defense attorneys for Allen have argued authorities arrested the wrong person and claimed that Odinism, a pagan Norse religion that has been linked to White supremacist groups, could be a theory connected to the killings, court documents show.
    Nicole Chavez, CNN, 18 Oct. 2024
Definition of pagan
Adjective
  • Christmas movies—secular and religious—are a great way to remind us that there’s more to this time of year than shopping deals and presents.
    Erik Kain, Forbes, 6 Dec. 2024
  • Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday, meaning it is not affiliated with any religion and is instead observed along with other major secular and religious holidays.
    Olivia Rose, The Arizona Republic, 3 Dec. 2024
Definition of secular
Adjective
  • The school shares a 28-acre campus with Campus for Kids Learning Center, a program for infants through 4-year-old kindergarten, and the nondenominational City Church.
    Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY, 17 Dec. 2024
  • Abbott continues the nondenominational representation through little Khadija, a Muslim student of Barbara’s.
    Ile-Ife Okantah, Vulture, 4 Dec. 2024
Definition of nondenominational
Adjective
  • For decades in California, those dollars have only been permitted to go to schools that are nonsectarian.
    Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2024
  • By the 1970s, however, Christian private schools outnumbered the nonsectarian ones, which inspired political activism among Christian evangelists who had shown little political interest previously.
    Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2024
Definition of nonsectarian
Adjective
  • To indicate aging, the number needs to be followed by the temporal unit (5 years or 12 months), otherwise the number is just the name of the product.
    Alissa Fitzgerald, Forbes, 27 Nov. 2024
  • In hindsight, Barcelona’s decision in 2008 to hand control to him, rather than to fall under the sway of his great ideological antithesis, Jose Mourinho, has taken on the air of a temporal border.
    Rory Smith, The Athletic, 21 Nov. 2024
Definition of temporal
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thesaurus Entries Near nonclerical

nonclassified

nonclerical

nonclinical

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Nonclerical.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nonclerical. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

Copy Citation

Share

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See All

Point of View: It's Personal

Plural and Possessive Names: A Guide

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Words You Always Have to Look Up
See All

Popular in Wordplay

See All

8 Words with Fascinating Histories

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments

Birds Say the Darndest Things

10 Words from Taylor Swift Songs (Merriam's Version)

10 Scrabble Words Without Any Vowels
See All

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
naughty or nice
Are you naughty or nice? Quiz He's making a quiz, and checking it twice...