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Word Study
laism |
laissez faire |
laissez passer |
laissez-faire |
laissez-faire economy |
laity
| laius
| lakao
| lake
| lake albert
| lake albert nyanza
laity
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun laity has 1 sense
- laity(n = noun.group) temporalty - in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy; Array is a kind of hoi polloi, mass, masses, multitude, people, the great unwashed
Antonym: clergy
Derived form adjective lay1
CIDE DICTIONARY
- The people, as distinguished from the clergy; the body of the people not in orders. [1913 Webster]"A rising up of the laity against the sacerdotal caste." [1913 Webster]
- The state of a layman. Ayliffe. [1913 Webster]
- Those who are not of a certain profession, as law or medicine, in distinction from those belonging to it. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
laity, n. (usu. prec. by the; usu. treated as pl.)
1 lay people, as distinct from the clergy.
2 non-professionals.
1 lay people, as distinct from the clergy.
2 non-professionals.
Etymology
ME f. LAY(2) + -ITY
ROGET THESAURUS
laity
Laity
N laity, flock, fold, congregation, assembly, brethren, people, society, temporality, secularization, layman, civilian, parishioner, catechumen, secularist, secular, lay, laical, civil, temporal, profane.
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