The noun excommunication is a formal way of describing what happens when someone gets kicked out of his or her church, for good.
- Pronunciation: /'ɛkskə,mjʊnə'keʃən/
- English Description: the act of banishing a member of a church from the communion of believers and the privileges of the church; cutting a person off from a religious society
- Synonyms: excision
- Chinese Translation: 逐出教会(zhu2 chu1 jiao4 hui4)
- Spanish Translation: la excomunión
- ORIGIN: Excommunication is really a kind of banishment, a punishment that's handed out by a church when one of its members breaks some important church rule. The Latin root is excommunicare, meaning "put out of the community," which is just what happens when a person is excommunicated. The term is used most often in churches whose traditions include the concept of communion, as another Latin meaning of excommunication is "to expel from communion."
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
- While not a lifelong ban, excommunication is a rare move that amounts to the harshest punishment available for a church member.
- But they also face threats of shunning at the communion rail, excommunication, and expulsion from religious schools, hospitals, charities, and other institutions in their districts.
*New word description, story and part of "EXAMPLE SENTENCE" are cited in Vocabulary.com