What does secularized mean?
Secularized describes something that has been separated from religious control, ownership, or interpretation and placed within the sphere of ordinary civic or worldly life. It is especially common in discussions of government, education, property, and religion, where a religious institution or practice may be converted to public, commercial, or otherwise nonreligious use. The word can also describe an argument or subject that has been framed in terms independent of religious doctrine. Secularized does not necessarily mean irreligious in a hostile sense: it may simply describe a lawful transfer from ecclesiastical to secular administration. The related noun secularization names that process, while secularize identifies the act itself. The term is especially appropriate when the historical or institutional change matters, since ordinary alternatives such as worldly or nonreligious do not always convey the fact of an explicit transition.
Having been made nonreligious or removed from ecclesiastical ownership, control, or use.
"The secularized chapel now serves as a public gallery."
Often used of buildings, institutions, property, practices, and ideas that have undergone a clear transition from religious to secular status.
To make something independent of religious authority or to transfer it from religious or ecclesiastical use to secular use.
"The council secularized the former abbey and opened it to the public."
Usually transitive and institutional in usage; it may imply a formal transfer of authority as well as a change in function.
A building can be secularized without losing its grandeur: religious institutions may disappear while the stone, art, and architecture endure in a new public life.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of secularized
Secularized is the past participle and past tense of secularize, formed from secular and the suffix -ize. The adjective secular comes ultimately from Latin saecularis, which was associated with a generation or age and developed the sense of pertaining to the world outside religious or ecclesiastical control. English secularize reflects this long-standing distinction between religious and worldly affairs, with related forms including secularism and secularity.
Related word forms
How secularized is actually used
Most common for institutions, property, practices, or arguments that have been brought under secular authority or reinterpreted without religious assumptions. It can be neutral or critical, depending on context.
Easily confused with secularized
Secular describes something that is nonreligious or concerned with worldly affairs, whereas secularized describes something that has specifically been made secular or removed from religious use.
Sacralized means made sacred or treated as holy, the opposite of being removed from religious use.