secularism

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
secular /ˈsɛkjʊlə/

▶adjective

• 1 not religious, sacred, or spiritual.

• 2 Christian Church not subject to or bound by religious rule.

  ■ Contrasted with regular.

• 3 Astronomy of or denoting slow changes in the motion of the sun or planets.

• 4 Economics (of a fluctuation or trend) occurring or persisting over an indefinitely long period.

• 5 occurring once every century or similarly long period (used especially in reference to celebratory games in ancient Rome).

▶noun a secular priest.

– derivatives
secularism noun,
secularist noun,
secularity noun,
secularization (or secularisation) noun,
secularize (or secularise) verb,
secularly adverb.

– origin ME: sense 1 of the adjective, sense 2 of the adjective from OFr. seculer, from L. saecularis, from saeculum ‘generation’, used in Christian L. to mean ‘the world’; sense 3 of the adjective, sense 4 of the adjective, sense 5 of the adjective (C19) from L. saecularis ‘relating to an age or period’.