- Enraptured by Danielle Steele’s thrilling prose style, Frank continued reading until the
library was ready to close.
SECT (sekt) n a small religious subgroup or religion; any group with a uniting theme or
purpose
- Jack dropped out of college and joined a religious sect whose members were required to
live with animals and surrender all their material possessions to the leaders of the sect. - After the schism of 1949, the religious denomination split into about fifty different sects,
all of them with near identical beliefs and none of them speaking to the others.
Matters pertaining to sects are sectarian (sek TER ee un).
- The company was divided by sectarian fighting between the research and marketing
departments, each of which had its own idea about what the new computer should be
able to do.
To be sectarian is also to be single-mindedly devoted to a sect. Nonsectarian means not
pertaining to any particular sect or group.
- Milly has grown so sectarian since becoming a Moonie that she can’t really talk to you
anymore without trying to convert you.
SECULAR (SEK yuh lur) adj having nothing to do with religion or spiritual concerns
- The group home had several nuns on its staff, but it was an entirely secular operation; it
was run by the city, not the church. - The priest’s secular interests include eating German food and playing the trombone.
STAGNATION (stag NAY shun) n motionlessness; inactivity
- The company grew quickly for several years; then it fell into stagnation.
- Many years of carelessly dumping garbage next to the river led to the gradual stagnation
of the water because the trash covered the bottom and made an impromptu dam.
To fall into stagnation is to stagnate. To be in a state of stagnation is to be stagnant.
UTILITARIAN (yoo til uh TAR ee un) adj stressing usefulness or utility above all other
qualities; pragmatic
- Jason’s interior-decorating philosophy was strictly utilitarian; if an object wasn’t genuinely
useful, he didn’t want it in his home.
Utilitarian can also be a noun. Jason, just aforementioned, could be called a utilitarian.