Excommunication \Ex`com*mu`ni*ca"tion\, n. [L. excommunicatio: cf. F. excommunication.]

The act of communicating or ejecting; esp., an ecclesiastical censure whereby the person against whom it is pronounced is, for the time, cast out of the communication of the church; exclusion from fellowship in things spiritual.

Note: excommunication is of two kinds, the lesser and the greater; the lesser excommunication is a separation or suspension from partaking of the Eucharist; the greater is an absolute execution of the offender from the church and all its rights and advantages, even from social intercourse with the faithful.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)