What's the difference between mundane and profane?

Mundane


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to the world; worldly; earthly; terrestrial; as, the mundane sphere.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But most instances are more mundane: the majority of fraud cases in recent years have emerged from scientists either falsifying images – deliberately mislabelling scans and micrographs – or fabricating or altering their recorded data.
  • (2) This morning he has mundane tasks to attend to – the logistics of players’ luggage for Basel – but the man they call Monchi is the sporting director and the architect who transformed the club.
  • (3) This requirement is one that Americans comply with every day to engage in mundane activities like cashing a check, opening a bank account or boarding a plane,” said Reed Clay, a special assistant under Abbott.
  • (4) The low number of scorable dream reports collected did not reveal a heightened incidence of "masochistic" or "negative" content, indeed were rather mundane.
  • (5) Today's demands are more mundane: hostage-takers range from single mothers to the nearly retired - they want jobs, proper pay and no brutal layoffs.
  • (6) Recent research in Delhi has revealed more mundane causes for high levels of violence and harassment.
  • (7) Finally, Guardian sports reporter turned ace observationalist Josh Widdicombe has the ability to find the sparkle in the mundane that puts him in line to become the next Sean Lock.
  • (8) Our current understanding of these disease processes is discussed in an effort to review the current status of both the mundane and the esoteric infections of the kidney.
  • (9) The perhaps disappointingly mundane answer, however, lies in a television programme.
  • (10) What seems the epitome of mundane routine for the average British commuter is being seen as near miraculous in a city where, like Los Angeles, the car is king and the train is nowhere in sight when navigating the sprawling suburbs.
  • (11) Many organisms construct structural ceramic (biomineral) composites from seemingly mundane materials; cell-mediated processes control both the nucleation and growth of mineral and the development of composite microarchitecture.
  • (12) In any case, Caine’s interest was piqued by more mundane matters: it was the first time he had been asked to play a conductor.
  • (13) Modern research has confirmed that memories for emotionally intense situations are unusually vivid and detailed, but it has also shown that they are no more accurate than mundane memories.
  • (14) These are the same mundane, bureaucratic factors that conspired to prevent any kind of action in Rwanda , 20 years ago.
  • (15) Published in their original handwritten form, the minutes of meetings of the Bank’s Court of Directors from 1914 to 45 , and of another key decision-making body, the Committee of the Treasury, from 1914 to 1931 , reveal a rich interweaving of the Earth-shattering and the mundane, which carried several echoes of the most recent crisis period of 2007-09 – minutes from which were released by the Bank on Tuesday.
  • (16) I think it’s useless to be afraid, actually … I believe that when you do things, when you decide an action, any fear goes away because action is stronger than fear.” Back in Moscow there are more mundane problems to worry about.
  • (17) Jimmy McGovern's saga of the ill-fated residents of The Street was similarly afflicted, despite its pedigree, as was Broadchurch, the unremitting Southcliffe and Prey, the recent Mancunian take on The Fugitive which managed to be both far-fetched and gruellingly mundane.
  • (18) In Scott & Bailey , for example, a good deal of the police work is mundane and the characters are bedevilled by the kinds of real-life domestic troubles that normally receive little more than lip service in police procedure.
  • (19) To the casual observer, emails between CIA staff and Bigelow's team have a somewhat mundane quality to them, though they do suggest a certain fanboyesque enthusiasm for the Hollywood project.
  • (20) Although rare, eosinophilic granuloma can be associated with cutaneous lesions, sometimes isolated and mundane in appearance.

Profane


Definition:

  • (a.) Not sacred or holy; not possessing peculiar sanctity; unconsecrated; hence, relating to matters other than sacred; secular; -- opposed to sacred, religious, or inspired; as, a profane place.
  • (a.) Unclean; impure; polluted; unholy.
  • (a.) Treating sacred things with contempt, disrespect, irreverence, or undue familiarity; irreverent; impious.
  • (a.) Irreverent in language; taking the name of God in vain; given to swearing; blasphemous; as, a profane person, word, oath, or tongue.
  • (a.) To violate, as anything sacred; to treat with abuse, irreverence, obloquy, or contempt; to desecrate; to pollute; as, to profane the name of God; to profane the Scriptures, or the ordinance of God.
  • (a.) To put to a wrong or unworthy use; to make a base employment of; to debase; to abuse; to defile.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Perhaps he modified his language for the NY Times reporter, but the more likely explanation is that his swearing added nothing and was therefore omitted by the writer or edited out; in America, even in liberal New York, profanities still need to be argued into print.
  • (2) Extensive research among the Afghan National Army – 68 focus groups – and US military personnel alike concluded: "One group sees the other as a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self-serving profane, infidel bullies hiding behind high technology; and the other group [the US soldiers] generally views the former as a bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot-smoking, treacherous, and murderous radicals.
  • (3) Throughout his life, Dad observed the rule that profanity – effing and blinding as he called it – should be confined to workplaces and other all-male venues where men gathered outside the earshot of women and children.
  • (4) McQueen told this tale several times – the words varied from “McQueen was here” to more profane messages, between tellings – and so, years later, Anderson & Sheppard asked the prince’s valet for the suits of that era back, in order to examine the linings.
  • (5) The phychological aspects of language show an antithesis between learned and profane languages.
  • (6) A few years back, a survey of 3,000 11-year-olds revealed that nine out of 10 parents swear in front of their children, and the average kid heard six different expletives per week (whoever said profanity was bad for your vocabulary?).
  • (7) "Not just because it's wrong to expect officers to endure profanities, but it's also because of the experience of the culprits.
  • (8) Here, in the profane world of anti-music, I could be a hater and say: "This is where the rock'n'roll dream dies.
  • (9) This research examined 160 college students' impressions of an audiotape of a female counselor who used profanity with either a male or female client who did or did not use profanity.
  • (10) Inside the cinema-like forum, all was concentrated silence punctuated by an occasional profanity or a murmur of "My God, North lied all along" from the readers.
  • (11) Effects of counselor's profanity and subject's religiosity on acquisition of lecture content and behavioral compliance were investigated.
  • (12) She was praised by many but also criticised harshly as a result of this exhibition, as her unapologetic nudity was seen by many as downright profane.
  • (13) You expect movie ratings to tell you whether a film contains nudity, sex, profanity or violence.
  • (14) One profanity-ridden post concluded with: "John Oliver told me to do this."
  • (15) Motion pictures were not born in religious practice, but instead are a totally profane offspring of capitalism and technology,” writes Paul Schrader in his landmark book, Transcendental Style in Film, in which he isolates two strains of religious film-making: the epics of Cecil B DeMille, presenting religion as spectacle, with teeming hordes, VistaVision, shafts of light, and strangely subdued orgies.
  • (16) She was roundly abused and Lord Carrington , the Economist and many others told her she was being profane.
  • (17) "It has mad amounts of violence, blood and profanity, and no shortage of racist and homophobic things.
  • (18) Boehner and his staff gamely tried to fend off both the specter of a shutdown and a leadership challenge from his caucus’ more belligerent culture warriors – as late as yesterday, a Boehner spokesman was assuring the press that the battle-tested speaker “wasn’t going anywhere.” No doubt, however, that a cursory look at the long train of sober spiritual leaders in his caucus lining up to deliver pointless CSPAN tantrums over the outrages of science prompted the longtime Ohio Congressman to mutter some variant of Good Lord, not this again together with a few well-chosen profanities for good measure.
  • (19) Cultural comprehensions and spirit of time are registered in numerous sacred and profane monuments of art.
  • (20) A profanity-strewn squabble with bewildered old John Motson was trotted out; Fergie time; the hairdryer treatment; the intimidation of some match officials; the trackside battles with Wenger and Benitez.