What's the difference between sacred and secular?

Sacred


Definition:

  • (a.) Set apart by solemn religious ceremony; especially, in a good sense, made holy; set apart to religious use; consecrated; not profane or common; as, a sacred place; a sacred day; sacred service.
  • (a.) Relating to religion, or to the services of religion; not secular; religious; as, sacred history.
  • (a.) Designated or exalted by a divine sanction; possessing the highest title to obedience, honor, reverence, or veneration; entitled to extreme reverence; venerable.
  • (a.) Hence, not to be profaned or violated; inviolable.
  • (a.) Consecrated; dedicated; devoted; -- with to.
  • (a.) Solemnly devoted, in a bad sense, as to evil, vengeance, curse, or the like; accursed; baleful.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) As commander in chief, I believe that taking care of our veterans and their families is a sacred obligation.
  • (2) He sought only to help the Syrian people and I ask you for all that is sacred to help us and allow him to return home safely to those he loves and those who love him.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Cantlie in Syria in 2012.
  • (3) My Paul Nuttalls routine has floated back up the U-bend | Stewart Lee Read more Nuttall told Marr that “nothing should be a sacred cow in British politics.
  • (4) But among the football-faith community the legendary Anfield Road stadium is not considered a sacred site for nothing, and on this memorable night everyone felt what mighty magic can be summoned here.” Describing the match as “a classic in the illustrious history of these two clubs for years to come”, the commentator Daniel Theweleit also believed that the atmosphere at Anfield put Dortmund’s own famed fan culture into the shade: “Even those who have watched the club for centuries agreed that Dortmund has never achieved this kind of intensity.” Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung found satisfaction in seeing the German coach Jürgen Klopp exporting his magic touch across the Channel.
  • (5) 'If you meet, you drink …' Thus introduced to intoxicating liquors under auspices both secular and sacred, the offering of alms for oblivion I took to be the custom of the country in which I had been born.
  • (6) The Bernabéu blockade was dismantled, by necessity, in favour of an approach far closer the sacred Real tradition.
  • (7) Money should not shape the outcome; this sacred and ancient landscape is irreplaceable and unique for so many reasons, we cannot afford to get this wrong.
  • (8) Many in Khomeini’s inner circle opposed making peace, arguing that the “sacred defence” had to continue until Saddam’s rule collapsed.
  • (9) It is a sacred moment, and you feel blessed merely to have witnessed it.
  • (10) In short, Bamako remains uneasy, and the "sacred union" of the last few days can only be temporary.
  • (11) Cynics will tell you Camra’s membership know all about identity crises – once the rebels of the 1970s, they’re now mostly older dads and grandads – purists upholding Camra’s “cask only” creed as sacred.
  • (12) McLaughlin, the daughter of LaDonna Brave Bull Allard , a Standing Rock Sioux tribe member and founder of the Sacred Stone camp , is one of hundreds of women who have led the growing movement to stop the $3.7bn project threatening their land and culture .
  • (13) We concluded that the sacU gene does not affect sacB expression at the level of secretion but acts on a target within sacR.
  • (14) Faces of the North Dakota pipeline protest: 'Sacred land is who we are' Read more When I asked that question, I was thinking about what I heard from climate activist and environmental lawyer Carolyn Raffensperger, who had spent time at the camp earlier and has a long history in the area.
  • (15) Druids and New Age followers still claim the site as their sacred place.
  • (16) The performances come after the intended release on 24 September of the new LP, which is Sting's first album of original material since 2003's Sacred Love.
  • (17) But what is fundamental, sacred even, is the audience.
  • (18) The only thing she wouldn't do was We Shall Overcome, too sacred to perform on a whim she tells me when I meet her later, besides which - and here she giggles - "we probably won't overcome.
  • (19) Frustrated not over economics but “sacred rights”, they were willing to sacrifice “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” against the world’s mightiest empire.
  • (20) It’s a great tragedy.” All Yazidi celebrations, such as weddings and the party-like annual pilgrimage to their sacred temple, Lalish, have been put on hold.

Secular


Definition:

  • (a.) Coming or observed once in an age or a century.
  • (a.) Pertaining to an age, or the progress of ages, or to a long period of time; accomplished in a long progress of time; as, secular inequality; the secular refrigeration of the globe.
  • (a.) Of or pertaining to this present world, or to things not spiritual or holy; relating to temporal as distinguished from eternal interests; not immediately or primarily respecting the soul, but the body; worldly.
  • (a.) Not regular; not bound by monastic vows or rules; not confined to a monastery, or subject to the rules of a religious community; as, a secular priest.
  • (a.) Belonging to the laity; lay; not clerical.
  • (n.) A secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules.
  • (n.) A church official whose functions are confined to the vocal department of the choir.
  • (n.) A layman, as distinguished from a clergyman.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Broad-based secular comprehensives that draw in families across the class, faith and ethnic spectrum, entirely free of private control, could hold a new appeal.
  • (2) In women, the secular increase occurred throughout the distribution of body weights but the change in the upper end was two to three times greater than that in the other parts of the distribution.
  • (3) Secularism is the only way to stop collapse and chaos and to foster bonds of citizenship in our complex democracy.
  • (4) These secular changes may explain why some studies have found that oral contraceptives have a protective effect, while others have been unable to show such an effect.
  • (5) Secular growth changes of Stockholm schoolchildren born in 1933, 1943, 1953 and 1963 were studied through samples of about 2500 children in each year.
  • (6) We still have at our disposal the rational interpretive skills that are the legacy of humanistic education, not as a sentimental piety enjoining us to return to traditional values or the classics but as the active practice of worldly secular rational discourse.
  • (7) Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya said the “truth [of the Gospel] continues to be called into question in the Anglican communion” and warned against “the global ambitions of a secular culture”.
  • (8) The previous history of PID, especially in the older age groups, reflects the combined effect of secular trends in PID incidence and temporal changes in diagnostic and treatment practices.
  • (9) 'If you meet, you drink …' Thus introduced to intoxicating liquors under auspices both secular and sacred, the offering of alms for oblivion I took to be the custom of the country in which I had been born.
  • (10) Memories of the conflict – in which up to 3 million people may have died – remain very much alive in the country of 160 million, the world's third largest Muslim state, albeit one with a broadly secular political culture.
  • (11) Causes of the marked secular trends in the cancer mortality and incidence are not clear, but the major causes are suspected to be changes in dietary habits, smoking and drinking habits, and other socio-environmental factors such as marital and reproductive factors.
  • (12) The results indicate an end to the positive secular trend for height and weight at about the same time as the previously reported end to a decreasing age of menarch in London girls.
  • (13) Ahead of disputed parliamentary elections, the secular forces that featured so prominently during the first months of the revolution are struggling.
  • (14) This secular trend was due to both "laboratory drift" and increasing use of diuretics.
  • (15) Thus, effects of secular change in age at menarche may not be wholly benign.
  • (16) A broad coalition of Egyptian organisations – some Islamist, some secular – plan to join with British NGOs and trade unions in protest at Sisi’s arrival ; letters denouncing Cameron’s invitation have been issued by political figures and academics , and an early-day motion in parliament condemning the visit has been signed by 51 MPs, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
  • (17) Their differences highlight Northern Ireland’s often stark dichotomy between religious-based social conservatism and secular progressive liberalism.
  • (18) It follows that the explanation of the secular trend as being an ecosensitive response of individuals to changing levels of well-being is insufficient.
  • (19) Hitchens responded to counter-examples of secular tyranny in the Soviet Union and China by saying: It is interesting to find that people of faith now seek defensively to say that they are no worse than fascists or Nazis or Stalinists.
  • (20) In conclusion it is suggested that medicalization may be conductive to sect development, and that secularization and medicalization are compatible models of social change.