laity

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: la=i=ty

CIDE DICTIONARY

laity, n. [See Lay, a.].

•  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.

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.