Definition of "secular" []

• Worldly rather than spiritual. (adjective)
• Not specifically relating to religion or to a religious body: secular music. (adjective)
• Relating to or advocating secularism. (adjective)
• Not bound by monastic restrictions, especially not belonging to a religious order. Used of the clergy. (adjective)
• Occurring or observed once in an age or century. (adjective)

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.

• "In their campaigns, new political groups have replaced the term "secular government" with "civil government" to try to finesse the issue."
• "But Mr. Erdogan's use of the term "secular" runs counter to Egyptian Islamists' conception of Islamic-minded governance, said Essam El Erian, vice president of the Brotherhood's newly formedpolitical party, Freedom and Justice."
• "The phrase "secular stagnation" fell from their lips in the 1940s, even on the eve of the great postwar boom."