excommunication

/ɛkskəmjuːnɪˈkeɪʃən/

UK: /ɛkskəmjuːnɪˈkeɪʃən/

excommunication

English Noun Top 48,190

Definition

The act of excommunicating, disfellowshipping or ejecting; especially 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.

Etymology

From Middle English excommunicacion, from Late Latin excommūnicātiō. By surface analysis, excommunicate + -ion. Displaced native Old English āmǣnsumung.