excommunication : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: excommunication	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for excommunication
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
excommunication n the state of being excommunicated [syn: excommunication, exclusion, censure] 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 Synonym(s): excommunication, excision
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Excommunication \Ex`commu`nica"tion\, n. [L. excommunicatio: cf. F. excommunication.] The act of communicating or ejecting; esp., an ecclesiastical censure whereby the person against whom it is pronounced is, for the time, cast out of the communication of the church; exclusion from fellowship in things spiritual. Note: excommunication is of two kinds, the lesser and the greater; the lesser excommunication is a separation or suspension from partaking of the Eucharist; the greater is an absolute execution of the offender from the church and all its rights and advantages, even from social intercourse with the faithful.