Definition

1. Verb:
   • To make something secular; to remove religious influence, control, or content from an institution, activity, or society.
   • To transfer something from religious or ecclesiastical to civil or lay use, possession, or control.

Usage

The verb "secularise" describes the process of changing something so that it is no longer connected with or controlled by religion. It is typically used in contexts discussing social, political, or institutional reform. It is a transitive verb, requiring a direct object (e.g., to secularise a country, a school system, or property).

Examples

• Verb:
  • The government passed laws to secularise the education system, removing mandatory religious instruction.
  • One of the revolution's main goals was to secularise the state and its legal framework.
  • Historically, many European monarchs moved to secularise church lands.

Advanced Usage

• "to secularise society": to transform a society so that religious institutions and beliefs lose their social and political power.
  • The intellectual movement of the Enlightenment sought to secularise European society.
• Used in sociological and historical analysis to describe a long-term process.
  • Over the 20th century, many Western nations became increasingly secularised.

Variants and Related Words

• Secularisation (noun): The process or result of making something secular.
  • The secularisation of public holidays was a topic of intense debate.
• Secularised (adjective): Having been made secular.
  • They attended a secularised version of the ceremony.
• Secularism (noun): The principle of separation of the state from religious institutions.
• Secular (adjective): Denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis.

Synonyms

• Deconsecrate: To transfer (a building) from sacred to secular use.
• Laicize: To remove clerical character or influence from; to make lay.
• Desacralize: To divest of sacred qualities.

Antonyms

• Consecrate: To make or declare something sacred.
• Sanctify: To set apart as or declare holy.
• Sacralize: To invest with sacred quality.

Notes

• The spelling "secularize" (with a 'z') is the standard form in American English, while "secularise" (with an 's') is common in British English. Both have the same meaning.
• The concept is central to discussions about modernity, governance, and the role of religion in public life.

Verb

1. make secular and draw away from a religious orientation
   • Ataturk secularized Turkey