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Definition of "laity" []

  • Laypeople considered as a group. (noun)
  • All those persons who are not members of a given profession or other specialized field. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "laity" in a sentence
  • "Another great evil, arising from the peculiarity of the voluntary system is, that in any of the principal sects the power has been wrested from the clergy and assumed by the laity, who exercise an inquisition most injurious to the cause of religion: and to such an excess of tyranny is this power exercised, that it depends upon the _laity_, and not upon the"
  • "The term laity signifies the aggregation of those Christians who do not form part of the clergy."
  • "Vatican 2 in Lumen Gentium said ‘the apostolate of the laity is a sharing in the salvific mission of the church’ and ‘the laity have the exalted duty of working for the ever greater spread of the divine plan of salvation to all people of every epoch and all over the earth.’"