catholic

comparative more catholic · superlative most catholic · alternative 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

   3 more examples

   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

   This semifossorial mammal tends to reside in areas with herbaceous cover, frequenting runways in the upper soil horizons where it feeds on a highly catholic diet of animal and plant materials […]

   1995, Brian D. Crandall, Peter W. Stahl, “Human Digestive Effects on a Micromammalian Skeleton”, in Journal of Archaeological Science, (1995) 22, 789-797

   Synonyms: universal, common, ecumenical, general, generic, nonsingular, nonspecific, universal

2. Alternative letter-case form of Catholic.
3. obsoleteCommon or prevalent; especially universally prevalent.
4. usuallytastesAll-embracing.

   "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

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   […]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 28, Henry A. Reed, “Art. IV.—Catholicity”, in Methodist Review, page 377

   He was omnivorous in his appetite for knowledge, quite catholic in his range of interests […]

   2003, Simon Winchester, The Meaning of Everything; The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, New York: Oxford University Press, page 72

   Synonyms: eclectic, varied, liberal, open-minded, dishomogeneous, diverse, diversified, eclectic

5. obsoleteUniversally applicable.
6. Of universal human interest or use.

   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

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   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 all affections, and spread themselves over all occasions, Catholique, universall Psalmes, that apply themselves to all necessities.

   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

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.

   1. Of the Roman Catholic church in particular.

      The Church of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic one.

      2 more examples

      Catholic churches are adorned differently from Protestant ones.

      A 2017 yearbook photograph obtained by CNN shows Robert Westman, later known as Robin Westman, then a student at Annunciation Catholic grade school in Minneapolis.

      2025 August 27, Casey Tolan, Audrey Ash, Allison Gordon, Yahya Abou-Ghazala, Rob Kuznia, John Miller, “Police examine online videos, writings possibly linked to Minneapolis church shooting suspect”, in CNN, archived from the original on 02 Oct 2025

2. Alternative letter-case form of catholic.

plural Catholics

1. A member of a Catholic (western Christian) church.
   1. ellipsisoftenA member of the Roman Catholic Church (which is also elliptically called the Catholic Church).

      The wife of the Prime Minister is a Catholic.

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      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

      Synonyms: Roman Catholic

1. A surname.