Dictionary

laicity en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /leɪˈɪsɪti/ (UK)
• /leɪˈɪsɪti/ (US)

Etymology

Borrowed from French laïcité. By surface analysis, laic + -ity.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The control or influence of the laity or the fact of being lay.
2. (alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable) Alternative form of laïcité.
   alt of laïcité
3. (countable, uncountable) Synonym of secularism.
   • This shows that there can be laicity even where there is no formal separation [of Church and State]. 2007, The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Religion, page 724:
   • In this sense, there is no doubt that the concept of laicity has been tremendously useful. 2017, Second International Handbook of Urban Education, page 596:
   • A correlation may be observed between the subjects studied in the masonic assemblies and those discussed in the Radical and Radical-Socialist party congresses: between 1901 and 1910 these subjects included state laicity, [...] 1949, The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, page 73:

Forms

Synonyms

secularism