The presentation will focus on the semantic analysis of secularism in the Arab political and social space at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. What terminology was used by Arabic speakers to express a secular worldview in the political sphere? What words were used? And what can the semantics of the term secularism teach us about the development of the concept? In historical and sociological literature, the secular idea is generally described using universal terms (such as secular, secularity, and secularism). Using foreign terminology to describe a local phenomenon creates a generalization that does not consider the nuances, differences, and stages accompanying the concept's development in non-Western languages. The main argument presented here is that exposing this local terminology will help us better understand the differences, lack of harmony, contradictions, and intellectual struggles that accompanied the emergence and formation of the concept in the Arabic language. The discussion will focus on two central stages in the life of “secularism”: the first period, in which the terminology focused on the social dimension and was mainly expressed through the concept of tolerance (tasāhul). At this stage, the legitimacy of separating religion from the state was established, justified, and presented as part of a general aspiration for progress, justice, equality, and political power. In the second period, the terminology of tolerance was replaced by a system of terms centered around ʿalmāniyya, which became the main marker of secularism. In this period, influenced by the impact of natural sciences on social sciences, the emergence of positivist epistemology, and progressive ideologies, ʿalmāniyya signified a holistic worldview and way of life. The presentation will focus on these two stages along a historical timeline from Ottoman reforms to World War I.