Catholic Meaning
/ˈkæ.θ(ə.)lɪk/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjUniversal; all-encompassing.
adjAlternative letter-case form of Catholic.
Sentence Examples
Mass is a Catholic ceremony of remembering Jesus Christ by eating and drinking.
Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun who lived and worked in Calcutta, India.
Catholic leaders urge all of us to unite in the church.
CEFR Practice Quiz
My uncle is a devout ____ who attends mass every Sunday.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She grew up in a ____ family and attended the local church every Sunday.
Word Origin & History
From Old French catholique, from Latin catholicus, from Ancient Greek καθολικός (katholikós, “universal”), from κατά (katá, “according to”) + ὅλος (hólos, “whole”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"Newton Heath depot has lately been catholic in its choice of power for the 6.10 p.m. Manchester-Southport and the 9 p.m. back via Bolton."
— 1961 March, “Motive Power Miscellany”, in Trains Illustrated, page 181:
"[…]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, human, large, one to which Homer and Horace and Goethe and Tennyson should no be more foreign than Church Fathers, and archæologists, palæographers and antiquaries[…]"
— 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 science into a formula, or literature into a style, or art into a school, or morality into a maxim."
— 1896 May 26, Henry A. Reed, “Art. IV.—Catholicity”, in Methodist Review, page 377:
""I've got catholic tastes. Catholic with a small "c", of course.""
— 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 584:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
My uncle is a devout ____ who attends mass every Sunday.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She grew up in a ____ family and attended the local church every Sunday.