1. Of members of the clergy: Living `in the world' and not in monastic seclusion, as distinguished from `regular' and `religious'. 2. Belonging to the world and its affairs as distinguished from the church and religion; civil, lay, temporal. Chiefly used as a negative term, with the meaning non-ecclesiastical, non-religious, or non-sacred. Ethics- The science of human duty; the body of rules of duty drawn from this science; a particular system of principles and rules concerning duty, whether true or false; rules of practice in respect to ....