catholique

Adjective

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

   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

   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

See all 10 meanings of catholic