Catherine
Syllables: Cath·e·rine/ˈkæθ(ə)ɹɪn/
Catherine proper noun: a female given name from Ancient Greek.
Proper noun
Catherine
- A female given name from Ancient Greek.
- - - - despite of what you say of my fine name, I think my head is so obstinate and inflexible that the name Catherine was well chosen. It suits my character. I was given the name by the late Empress Elisabeth, to whom I owe much; she gave it to me out of affection and out of respect for her mother1763 Voltaire and Catherine the Great: Selected Correspondence. Voltaire, Catherine, Antony Lentin.(Translation from French.)Publ. Oriental Research Partners,1973
- It was named Catherine, but he never called it the name in full, as he had never called the first Catherine short, probably because Heathcliff had a habit of doing so. The little one was always Cathy, it formed to him a distinction from the mother, and yet, a connection with her;1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC
Catherine meaning in Arabic, Persian and Vietnamese
Catherine in Arabic
- female given name
- كَاتْرِين kātrīn
Catherine in Persian
- female given name
- کاترین kâtrin
Catherine in Vietnamese
- female given name
- Catarina
Examples of Catherine in a sentence
- My father named me Catherine, and my mother nicknamed me Carrie.1981, Carole Gift Page, Carrie, Bethany House Publishers, published 1994, →ISBN, page 55:
- "Yes, Catherine sounds like a lovely name.2003, Michael O. Gregory, The Dead Years, page 35:
- Catherine Blakespear, one of the bill’s supporters, said people were not reusing or recycling any plastic bags.2024 September 22, “California governor signs law banning all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores”, in AP News, archived from the...
Forms of Catherine
| alternative form | Catharine |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Katharine |
| alternative form | Katherine |
| alternative form | Kathryn |
| alternative form (nonstandard, rare) | Catheryn |
| alternative form (nonstandard, rare) | Cathryn |
| alternative form (nonstandard, rare) | Katheryn |
Origin of Catherine
Borrowed from French Catherine, from Ancient Greek Αἰκατερίνη (Aikaterínē), *Ἑκατερίνη (*Hekaterínē), of debated meaning, possibly from ἑκάτερος (hekáteros, “each of the two”), or from the name of the goddess Hecate. The apheresis of the first syllable as well as the spelling with ⟨th⟩ in Latin languages, German and English, is due to a folk etymology, dating from Roman times, which associated the name with the Ancient Greek καθαρός (katharós, “pure”). The name belonged to a 4th-century saint and martyr from Alexandria who was tortured on the wheel from where the term Catherine wheel originates.
Words formed from Catherine
Phrases with Catherine
Words that rhyme with Catherine
Questions about Catherine
- What does Catherine mean?
- Catherine means a female given name from Ancient Greek.
- What is Catherine in Arabic?
- Catherine in Arabic is كَاتْرِين (kātrīn). See Catherine meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use Catherine in a sentence?
- My father named me Catherine, and my mother nicknamed me Carrie.
- What part of speech is Catherine?
- Catherine is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce Catherine?
- Catherine is pronounced /ˈkæθ(ə)ɹɪn/ (UK).
Words near Catherine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Catherine (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Catherine.wav.
Cite this entry: “Catherine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catherine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.