This week’s theme
Words with double lives

This week’s words
automania
airhead
monophagy
secular
wonky

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SEK-yuh-luhr)

MEANING:

adjective:	1. Relating to worldly rather than religious matters.
	2. Occurring once in an age or century.
	3. Enduring over an extended period.
noun:	1. A member of clergy not bound by monastic vows.
	2. A layperson.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old French seculer, from Latin saeculum (generation, age). Earliest documented use: 1290.

USAGE:

“Pilgrims to the gravesite often visit Safed, whose picturesque labyrinth of cobblestone streets attracts secular tourists as well.”
Canaan Lidor; Resolve in Safed Amid Rockets; Montreal Gazette (Canada); Sep 30, 2024.

“Like the Roman emperors, Trump has done a good job of presenting himself as the proponent of a new age. His America is not ‘great’, but it can be ‘great again’. Augustus, Claudius, and Domitian peddled the same myth. With the celebratory Secular Games, they signalled that Rome was waving goodbye to one age and entering a new one reminiscent of the fabled days of old.”
Daisy Dunn; What the Lessons of the Roman Empire Can Teach Us About Donald Trump; The New Statesman (London, UK); Jan 25, 2017.

“Juvenile systems, including those in Michigan, continue to shrink due to a secular trend of lower juvenile crime and fewer arrests.”
Stop Charging 17-Year-Olds as Adults; Detroit Free Press (Michigan); Apr 11, 2019.

See more usage examples of secular in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: