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Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy;
[syn: laity, temporalty]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Laity \La"i*ty\ (l[=a]"[i^]*t[y^]), n. [See Lay, a.] 1. 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. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] 2. The state of a layman. [Obs.] --Ayliffe. [1913 Webster] 3. Those who are not of a certain profession, as law or medicine, in distinction from those belonging to it. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

laity n 1: in Christianity, members of a religious community that do not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy [syn: laity, temporalty] [ant: clergy]
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

LAITY. Those persons who do not make a part of the clergy. In the United States the division of the people into clergy and laity is not authorized by law, but is, merely conventional.