excommunicate

Verb

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɛkskəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɛkskəˈmjunəkeɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective and noun

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɛkskəˈmjuːnɪkət/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɛkskəˈmjunəkət/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

From Ecclesiastical Latin excommunicātus, perfect passive participle of excommunicō (“excommunicate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). By surface analysis, ex- +‎ communicate.

excommunicate (third-person singular simple present excommunicates, present participle excommunicating, simple past and past participle excommunicated)

1. (transitive) To officially exclude someone from membership of a church or religious community.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 294:

     “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. (transitive, historical or figurative) To exclude from any other group; to banish.
   • 1982 December 18, Pat Califa, “Open Policy”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 22, page 5:

     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.

   • 1987, InfoWorld, volume 9, number 37, page 46:

     Although our Macs served us well, in those early, dark years Macintosh users were effectively excommunicated by the computer establishment.

• disfellowship
• takfir

• excommunication

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.

excommunicate (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Excommunicated.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John ix:[22], folio cxxxiiij, verso:

     […] the iewes had conſpyred allredy that yff eny man did confeſſe that he was Chriſt / he ſhulde be excommunicat out of the Sinagoge.

   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 9, column 2:

     Thou ſhalt ſtand curſt, and excommunicate […]

From a substantivation of the above adjective. See -ate (noun-forming suffix) for more.

excommunicate (plural excommunicates)

1. An excommunicated person.

   Synonyms: excommunicant, excommunicatee