Catholic

From Old French catholique, from Latin catholicus, from Ancient Greek καθολικός (katholikós, “universal”), from κατά (katá, “according to”) + ὅλος (hólos, “whole”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæθ(ə)lɪk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æθəlɪk, -æθlɪk
• Hyphenation: Cath‧o‧lic

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.

2. Of the Roman Catholic church in particular.

   The Church of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic one.

   Catholic churches are built differently than Protestant ones.

3. Alternative letter-case form of catholic.

Catholic (plural Catholics)

1. A member of a Catholic church.

   Hypernyms: Christian, Trinitarian

   Coordinate terms: Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, Quaker

   The wife of the Prime Minister is a Catholic.

   • 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:

     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.

• Chilcoat