What does excommunicating mean?
Excommunicating is the present participle and gerund of the verb excommunicate, meaning to formally expel a person from membership in a church or to bar them from its sacraments and communal life. The practice is most closely associated with the Roman Catholic Church, where excommunication has historically been one of the gravest penalties available to ecclesiastical authority, though many other Christian denominations have their own equivalent forms of formal exclusion. By extension, the word is sometimes used figuratively for the emphatic casting out of someone from any group or community, often with an ironic or dramatic tone. Because of its religious roots, excommunicating carries a weighty, formal connotation: it suggests not merely disagreement or dismissal but a solemn, official severing of ties. The word derives from Latin roots meaning 'out of communion,' reflecting its core idea of cutting a person off from the shared fellowship of a body of believers.
Present participle of excommunicate: to officially exclude a person from participation in the sacraments and services of a church.
"The bishops debated excommunicating the heretical preacher before Easter."
Almost always used in formal or historical religious contexts; secular uses are typically figurative.
Gerund form referring to the act or process of formally excluding someone from a church or community.
"Excommunicating was among the harshest penalties a medieval court could impose."
Used mainly in scholarly or historical discussion of ecclesiastical practice.
For centuries, being on the wrong end of excommunicating meant more than losing church privileges — it could cost you your property, your allies, even your place in heaven.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of excommunicating
Excommunicating comes from the Latin excommunicare, formed from ex- ('out of') and communio ('communion, community'), itself rooted in communis ('common, shared'). The term entered English via Ecclesiastical Latin and Old French during the medieval period, when excommunication was a central instrument of church discipline. It shares its root with everyday words such as communion, communicate, and communal, all tracing back to the same Latin source about sharing in common.
Related word forms
How excommunicating is actually used
The term carries strong ecclesiastical connotations and belongs chiefly to formal, historical, or religious registers. In modern secular writing it is usually used figuratively or ironically to stress the severity of an exclusion. The base verb 'excommunicate' takes the regular -ed/-ing endings; 'excommunicating' functions both as a present participle and as a gerund noun.
Easily confused with excommunicating
Communicating means conveying information or sharing ideas, whereas excommunicating means formally expelling someone from a religious community.