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excommunicate

[eks-kuh-myoo-ni-keyt, eks-kuh-myoo-ni-kit, -keyt] / ˌɛks kəˈmju nɪˌkeɪt, ˌɛks kəˈmju nɪ kɪt, -ˌkeɪt /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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He did this by threatening to excommunicate from the Church those bishops who refused to comply with his wishes.

From BBC Apr. 28, 2025

After the service, journalists were asked to leave while members voted on a move of “church discipline” to excommunicate Long under the church’s bylaws.

From Seattle Times Mar. 21, 2021

“They can’t excommunicate me because I am not going anywhere,” she says.

From New York Times May 22, 2020

In 1784, Methodists made plans to excommunicate all members who had not freed their slaves within the next two years.

From Textbooks Jan. 18, 2018

Such a pair were once sent with bulls to excommunicate Barnabas Visconti, but Barnabas only made them eat their bulls—parchment, ribbons, leaden seals and all.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

It now excommunicates anyone who practises polygamy but a number of fundamentalist Mormon offshoots continue to do so.

From BBC Feb. 19, 2020

Complying with the church commandments isn’t such a problem for many Amish inmates, because the church usually excommunicates members who commit crimes of violence or depravity before they enter prison.

From Slate Sep. 21, 2012

The mainstream Mormon church, which has no affiliation with the FLDS, abandoned polygamy in 1890 and excommunicates members engaged in the practice.

From Reuters Jun. 22, 2012

Good Catholic wives glanced at the crucifix on the wall, tried not to think of excommunicates.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then there was Bernard, who excommunicates the flies, and they drop dead.

From The Dream by Eliza E. Chase

“I like to say I was excommunicated from the church of the medical establishment,” he said in the Substack video.

From Salon Dec. 15, 2025

Two excommunicated Spanish nuns who have joined a sect were held for allegedly selling cultural assets belonging to the Catholic Church from a convent they refuse to leave, a court said on Friday.

From Barron's Nov. 28, 2025

He and his wife Anne were excommunicated by his local church in Cape Town, South Africa, the year before he died.

From BBC Nov. 7, 2024

In 2009, for example, Pope Benedict diplomatically reconnected with a far-right group that had, in a great scandal in the ’80s, excommunicated itself by consecrating bishops outside the church’s approval.

From Slate Dec. 18, 2023

Who becomes a social pariah and excommunicated from civil society and who trots off to college bears scant relationship to the morality of crimes committed.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

AI isn’t going anywhere: It’s already an essential tool for the modern economy, and excommunicating it from the classroom would leave graduates unprepared for the future.

From The Wall Street Journal Nov. 18, 2025

Soon after, the patriarch issued his own letter excommunicating the pope’s representatives.

From Textbooks Apr. 19, 2023

The Vatican has been considering developing a doctrine about excommunicating Catholic mobsters.

From Seattle Times May 9, 2021

Another commenter added, “Why are they excommunicating you over a 1-year-olds attendance? That baby will never remember your wedding day and likely would never care that he wasn’t invited.”

From Fox News May 15, 2019

The Pope had long felt the necessity of excommunicating his enemies, but had forborne up to this time in the hope that the Emperor might display some spirit of repentance.

From The War Upon Religion Being an Account of the Rise and Progress of Anti-christianism in Europe by Francis A. (Francis Aloysius) Cunningham




Vocabulary lists containing excommunicate


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