catholic

Adjective (1)

catholic (comparative more catholic, superlative most catholic)

1. Universal; all-encompassing.
   • The church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does, belongs to all.1624, John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII., in The Works of John Donne, vol. 3, ed. Henry Alford, London: John W. Parker (1839), pp. 574-5
   • Essentially, and in idea, the empire, in the minds of the Romans, was world-wide. This conception descended to the Church, which was ‘Catholic’ in spite of Buddhists, Confucians, and (later) Muhammadans.1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.29

   Synonyms:

   universal, common, ecumenical, general, generic, nonsingular, nonspecific, unparticular, unsingular, unspecific

2. (obsolete) Common or prevalent; especially universally prevalent.
3. (usually, tastes) All-embracing.
   • […]a knowledge which should not only know at what particular spot in these mounds it should excavate, but, having excavated, would understand how to sift and use these materials properly, with a profoundly pious and reverential mind,—a knowledge not narrow, sectarian, one-sided, but catholic...1874, Immanuel Oscar Menahem Deutsch, “Les Apôtres”, in Emily Ann Smythe, Viscountess Strangford, editor, Literary Remains of the Late Emanuel Deutsch, London: John Murray, page 201
   • A catholic mind is a continual source of pleasure, a catholic taste continually enjoys it. Narrow-mindedness is a curse wherever it exists, whether in the religions, scientific, literary, or aesthetic sphere, or in the world of social intercourse; whether it dwindles religion into a dogma, or...1896 May, Henry A. Reed, “Art. IV.—Catholicity”, in Methodist Review, page 377

   Synonyms:

   eclectic, varied, liberal, open-minded, dishomogeneous, diverse, diversified, heterogeneous, manifold, miscellaneous

4. (obsolete) Universally applicable.
5. Of universal human interest or use.
   • And as the whole booke of Psalmes is Oleum efjusum, (as the Spouse speaks of the name of Christ) an Oyntment powred out upon all sorts of sores, A Searcloth that souples all bruises, A Balme that searches all wounds; so are there some certaine Psalmes, that are Imperiall Psalmes, that command over...c. 1625, John Donne, edited by Evelyn M. Simpson and George R. Potter, The Sermons of John Donne, volume 7, Berkeley: University of California Press, published 1962, page 51
   • And this vast number is but a selection ; the editors chose only out of the mass before them what was most noteworthy and trustworthy, and what was of catholic rather than of national interest.1868, James Anthony Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects, 3rd edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 363

Adjective (2) capitalized: Catholic

UK/ˈkæθ(ə)lɪk/British/ˈkaθ(ə)lɪk/

Catholic (comparative more Catholic, superlative most Catholic)

1. Of the Western Christian church, as differentiated from e.g. the Orthodox church.
   • Christmas is celebrated at different dates in the Catholic and Orthodox calendars.
   • Who or what is a Catholic? This Greek word has become one of the chief battlegrounds in western Latin Christianity, for it is used in different ways which outside observers of Christian foibles find thoroughly confusing. The word ‘Catholic’ is the linguistic equivalent of a Russian doll. It may...2003, Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History, Penguin, →ISBN, page xviii-xix
   1. Of the Roman Catholic church in particular.
      • The Church of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic one.
      • Catholic churches are adorned differently from Protestant ones.
2. Alternative letter-case form of catholic.

Noun capitalized: Catholic

UK/ˈkæθ(ə)lɪk/British/ˈkaθ(ə)lɪk/

Catholic (plural Catholics)

1. A member of a Catholic (western Christian) church.
   1. (ellipsis, often) A member of the Roman Catholic Church (which is also elliptically called the Catholic Church).
      • The wife of the Prime Minister is a Catholic.
      • The consubstantialists, who by their success have deserved and obtained the title of Catholics, gloried in the simplicity and steadiness of their own creed, and insulted the repeated variations of their adversaries, who were destitute of any certain rule of faith.1781, Edward Gibbon, chapter XXI, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 254

Proper noun capitalized: Catholic

UK/ˈkæθ(ə)lɪk/British/ˈkaθ(ə)lɪk/

Catholic

1. A surname.