Excommunicate
adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An excommunicated person.
- 1 To officially exclude someone from membership of a church or religious community. transitive
"“Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It’s absurd, but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.” ¶ She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain."
- 2 exclude from a church or a religious community wordnet
- 3 To exclude from any other group; to banish. figuratively, historical, transitive
"Samois includes celebate ^([sic]), heterosexual and bisexual women as well as lesbians, and I feel very strongly that this is the wisest choice. Our community is so fragile that we can't afford to fragment it by excommunicating non-lesbian women."
- 4 oust or exclude from a group or membership by decree wordnet
- 1 Excommunicated. archaic, not-comparable
"[…]the iewes had conſpyred allredy that yff eny man did confeſſe that he was Chriſt / he ſhulde be excommunicat out of the Sinagoge."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"“Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It’s absurd, but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.” ¶ She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain."
Etymology
From Ecclesiastical Latin excommunicātus, perfect passive participle of excommunicō (“excommunicate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). By surface analysis, ex- + communicate.
From Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin excommunicātus, perfect passive participle of excommunicō (“put out of the community”). See -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more. Displaced native Old English āmǣnsumian.
From a substantivation of the above adjective. See -ate (noun-forming suffix) for more.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.