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One who, after having received sacred orders, renounces his clerical profession.

To renounce totally a religious belief once professed; to forsake one's church, the faith or principles once held, or the party to which one has previously adhered. He apostatized from his old faith in facts, took to believing in Carlyle.

One of a sect of ancient Christians, who, in supposed imitation of the first believers, renounced all their possessions.

After the manner of nouns appellative; in a manner to express whole classes or species; as, Hercules is sometimes used appellatively, that is, as a common name, to signify a strong man.

To make use of, declare, or pronounce, as suitable, fitting, or relative; as, to apply the testimony to the case; to apply an epithet to a person. Yet God at last To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied. Milton.

The state of two nouns or pronouns, put in the same case, without a connecting word between them; as, I admire Cicero, the orator. Here, the second noun explains or characterizes the first. Growth by apposition (Physiol.), a mode of growth characteristic of non vascular tissues, in which nutritive matter from the blood…

A noun in apposition. -- Ap*pos"i*tive*ly, adv. Appositive to the words going immediately before. Knatchbull.

A noun which has no distinction of cases; an indeclinable noun.

as, news brought by the last arrival. Another arrival still more important was speedily announced. Macaulay.

One of the three words, a, an, the, used before nouns to limit or define their application. A (or an) is called the indefinite article, the the definite article.

Produced, as a letter, syllable, or word, by the organs of speech; pronounced.

gh breathing; a mark placed over an initial vowel sound or over h before it; thus hws, pronounced h, hrj'twr, pronounced hra\'b6t.

To pronounce with a breathing, an aspirate, or an h sound; as, we aspirate the words horse and house; to aspirate a vowel or a liquid consonant.

Pronounced with the h sound or with audible breath. But yet they are not aspirate, i. e., with such an aspiration as h. Holder.

n assertory, not a promissory, declaration. Bentham. A proposition is assertory, when it enounces what is known as actual. Sir W. Hamilton.

As a noun suffix, it marks the agent; as, curate, delegate. It also sometimes marks the office or dignity; as, tribunate.

A suffix forming nouns of action, and often equivalent to the verbal substantive in -ing. It sometimes has the further meanings of state, and that which results from the action. Many of these nouns have verbs in -ate; as, alliterate -ation, narrate -ation; many are derived through the French; as, alteration, visitation…

erson) to the legal condition formerly resulting from a sentence of death or outlawry, pronounced in respect of treason or felony; to affect by attainder. No person shall be attainted of high treason where corruption of blood is incurred, but by the oath of two witnesses. Stat. 7 & 8 Wm. III.

A word that denotes an attribute; esp. a modifying word joined to a noun; an adjective or adjective phrase.

the existence of animal life, or anterior to the paleozoic tome. Azoic is also used as a noun, age being understood. See Archæan, and Eozoic.