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anticlerical

anticlerical

1 8.4
Against religious leaders having power in public life
  • adjective
  • /ˌæn.tɪˈklɛr.ɪ.kəl/
: anticlerical
  • Protestant inroads in Ecuador began only with the ascension of the anticlerical Liberal Party in 1895 under General Eloy Alfaro.
  • anticlerical legislation

Examples

  • Several decades of strongly anticlerical government in Mexico had not eradicated that country's popular Catholicism.

    Academic text (1998)
  • His battles with the church authorities and his extraordinary poetic talents made him the hero of a broad anticlerical laymen's movement.

    Academic text (1995)
  • La Regenta is a ferociously anticlerical novel.

    Academic text (2003)
  • Being relatively weak, the new government could not repel this challenge and repealed most of the anticlerical legislation.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Anticlerical politicians threatened the religious liberty of the masses, who had no electoral alternatives.

    Academic text (1997)
  • To win church support for his regime, Diaz chose not to enforce the anticlerical articles in the Constitution of 1857.

    Academic text (1999)
  • In 1926, President Plutarco Elias Calles began implementing the anticlerical provisions in the 1917 constitution.

    Academic text (1999)
  • The speaker's glee at the Bishop's discomfiture is perhaps not surprising in such a fiercely anticlerical part of Greece as rural Crete.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Heirs to the region’s strong anticlerical tradition, they profoundly distrust the religious ideologies of the lower classes.

    Academic text (1992)
  • The anticlerical reforms aimed to limit the church's power in government affairs.

Antonyms

9 6.1

Relating to church leaders and their duties

How Anticlerical

anticlerical
1 8.4
hostile
238 4.6
critical
131 5.2
indifferent
6 3.7

Surface Forms

anticlerical positive

Morphology

anticlerical = clerical (semi-transparent) = anti + cleric + al

The word is built transparently from anti- + clerical, but clerical in the religious sense is somewhat specialized and may not be fully salient to many learners.

Etymology

Anticlerical comes from anti- 'against' and clerical from cleric or clergy 'religious leader'. So, an anticlerical attitude or policy is one that opposes the power or influence of religious leaders.