How to Use secular in a Sentence

secular

1 of 2 adjective
Definition of secularnext
Synonyms for secularnext
  • Both secular and religious institutions can apply for the funds.
  • The secular schools don't even put the questions on the table.
    — Freep.com, 8 Oct. 2021
  • The 1987 crash was in the midst of a massive secular bill market.
    — Joseph N. Distefano, Philly.com, 3 Nov. 2017
  • There are some secular longer-term trends that could help the stock, as well.
    — Trefis Team, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2022
  • The colony’s bishop, Peters, hopes to hide all this from the secular world.
    — Sarah Jones, The New Republic, 26 June 2019
  • New York is a city of secular churches—and for three months the pews have been empty.
    — Elias Williams, National Geographic, 15 June 2020
  • Takhween is the secular version of that: to declare someone a traitor (kha’in) to the nation.
    — Sam Sweeney, National Review, 6 Sep. 2020
  • More than half of these funds went to secular non-profits here in San Diego.
    — Lisa Deaderick, sandiegouniontribune.com, 3 June 2017
  • Way too much twang for my taste in both the sacred and secular carols.
    — Luis Melgar, Washington Post, 8 Dec. 2023
  • All that adds up to something that feels like secular gospel, complete with the stomps.
    — Allison P. Davis, The Cut, 22 June 2018
  • The Manet exists in a separate universe — the universe of the secular, the arts, the modern.
    — Vulture, 26 Sep. 2023
  • Here are the details of sacred and secular objects at the center of the royal event.
    — Elise Brisco, USA TODAY, 3 May 2023
  • The line between the secular and the sacred in France is a constant source of contest and conflict.
    — The Economist, 18 Dec. 2019
  • This is a problem in the eyes of a certain sort of secular liberal.
    — Timothy P. Carney, Washington Examiner, 12 Jan. 2024
  • As the nation as a whole became more secular, the Christian right grew in strength and in numbers.
    — Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker, 23 Oct. 2020
  • But the song was a hit across the board, and received airplay on secular radio stations as well.
    — Brooklyn White, Essence, 14 Apr. 2020
  • Stressing the secular change in the business is likely to carry weight on Wall Street.
    — Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Jan. 2023
  • Iceland is one of the most secular nations in the world, but there is no separation of church and state.
    — Sara Miller Llana, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Dec. 2017
  • We weren’t allowed to go to movies, listen to secular music, or watch TV.
    — Aaron Hartzler, USA TODAY, 13 Mar. 2018
  • The market does not have a good record of crossing the fault line between secular tech and cyclical themes smoothly.
    — Oliver Renick, Forbes, 15 Sep. 2021
  • This is true both for more secular and more religious Jews.
    — Randall P. Lieberman, Jewish Journal, 17 Aug. 2017
  • And in this case, Hybel said, Fitzgerald's work was secular.
    — John Fritze, USA TODAY, 5 June 2023
  • In part the response has pitted a religious right against a more secular left.
    — Dina Kraft, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 Mar. 2022
  • Elsewhere in the movement, there was open talk of moving past him for more secular reasons.
    — New York Times, 19 July 2022
  • Khalid’s father was secular, which was unusual for an Iraqi at the time.
    — WIRED, 5 Jan. 2023
  • But the city banned its appearance, saying no non-secular flags could be flown.
    — Fox News, 16 July 2019
  • In it, the artist deals with the profoundly secular world in which cheats prevail over innocence.
    — Dallas News, 21 June 2019
  • The outright pushiness of it all has cheapened secular Christmas in my mind.
    — Donna Vickroy, Daily Southtown, 8 Sep. 2017
  • The main two sects of Judaism are secular and orthodox.
    — Jason Fontelieu, Baltimore Sun, 23 Sep. 2022
  • After years of singing in church, Clayton dipped her toe in secular music.
    — Elise Brisco, USA TODAY, 28 Feb. 2022
Advertisement

secular

2 of 2 noun
  • And when the gates opened to the public in the late afternoon, the line was a mix of the religious and the secular, Jews and Arabs.
    — New York Times, 25 Dec. 2021
  • Both men, who were about the same age, had grown up as working-class secular Jews in New York.
    — Clay Risen, BostonGlobe.com, 5 July 2022
  • Each piece explores an aspect of love from the religious to the secular.
    — oregonlive, 22 Mar. 2021
  • During the next six months, MacAskill and Ord enjoined their friends and other moral philosophers to pledge a secular tithe.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2022
  • There can be no separation of the secular and the sacred.
    — Harrison Smith, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Aug. 2022
  • And so the category of the secular is viewed with great suspicion these days.
    — Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 9 Mar. 2022
  • Mixed feelings about the sacred and the secular are hardly unique to this musician.
    — John Defore, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 May 2022
  • Global trade and shipping are part of a long-term secular story, at the center of which is the global middle class.
    — Frank Holmes, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2021
  • If not, China will struggle to avoid a secular, rather than a cyclical, downturn in growth this decade.
    — Nathaniel Taplin, WSJ, 31 Dec. 2021
  • Over the years, Robinson has expanded his live and recorded repertoire to include the secular along with the sacred.
    — Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune, 27 Feb. 2021
  • Gilbert presents us with a sharp distinction between the religious and the secular in the United States today.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 27 Sep. 2022
  • The conversation Raphael creates across the room bridges the two worlds of the sacred and the secular, part of the larger effort advanced by Julius’s papacy.
    — Cammy Brothers, WSJ, 20 Jan. 2021
  • At that time, the secular was much more elevated, and was much more prominent.
    — Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 9 Mar. 2022
  • So how does McBride see himself and his old musical pals Stephens and Yates in this explosion of ideas that connect the dots between the sacred and the secular in a fresh way?
    — A.d. Amorosi, Variety, 22 June 2022
  • Michel Leiris, who as a young man was friends with him, pointed out in an introduction to The Dice Cup that the title itself has both a secular and a sacred aspect.
    — Jed Perl, The New York Review of Books, 25 Feb. 2021
  • That’s enough for a pair of elementary schools, one religious, the other secular.
    — Washington Post, 5 June 2021
  • Although white nationalism, draped in Christian symbolism, is a problem, the much greater threat comes from the secular Left.
    — Joseph Loconte, National Review, 30 May 2021
  • Smith Pegues is known for impacting the lives of both secular and faith-based audiences and demographics.
    — Lynnette Nicholas, Essence, 26 July 2022
  • This included not only the Gulf monarchies but the secular (albeit brutal) regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
    — Michael Lynch, Forbes, 11 Mar. 2021
  • At various intervals throughout his career, Kanye has tried (and, for the most part, failed) to reconcile the secular and the sanctified.
    — Sheldon Pearce, The New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2021
  • In the secular, bottom-line world Byrne inhabits, patience is in short supply and results are demanded.
    — Rainer Sabin, AL.com, 18 May 2017
  • As a result, 12 out of 13 of West’s nominations come in Christian or gospel categories, with the lone secular outlier for Ye being a nod for top rap album.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 8 Apr. 2022
  • During the Easter weekend, Vice travels between two worlds, one deeply religious, the other secular.
    — oregonlive, 15 Apr. 2022
  • There are small touches played almost as throwaways that solidify the balance between the sacred and the secular — the band members on prayer rugs after a practice session, for instance.
    — Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 3 June 2021
  • And each ended in deadlock, with both Netanyahu’s supporters as well as his secular, Arab and dovish opponents falling short of a majority.
    — Time, 3 June 2021
  • Encounters between the ultra-Orthodox and the secular have reached new heights during the coronavirus pandemic.
    — Washington Post, 6 Jan. 2022
  • Locke’s modern interpreters — from both the secular left and the religious right — often appear ignorant of his scriptural references.
    — Joseph Loconte, National Review, 4 July 2021
  • Both confronted the traditional divide between the secular and the sacred in African-American culture.
    — John Edward Hasse, WSJ, 26 Oct. 2021
  • In making this fund investment, we were excited by the velocity in their television and film business, the strong management team and the massive secular tailwinds driving the industry.
    — Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 Jan. 2022
  • That Rushdie was raised a Muslim, albeit a secular, alcohol-loving Muslim who soon would declare his atheism, made his descriptions of the Prophet even more troubling than if some outsider had ignorantly portrayed the same.
    — Siva Vaidhyanathan, The New Republic, 16 Aug. 2022

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

Last Updated: