Catholic

/ˈkæ.θ(ə.)lɪk/ · adjective

Meaning

Universal; all-encompassing..

Definitions by Sense

1. Universal; all-encompassing.
2. Alternative letter-case form of Catholic.
3. (obsolete) Common or prevalent; especially universally prevalent.
4. (usually of people and their feelings, tastes, etc.) Embracing all.
5. (of medicines or remedies, obsolete) Universally applicable.
6. Of universal human interest or use.

Example Sentences

The church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does, belongs to all.

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 […]

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.

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.

[…]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[…]

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.

"I've got catholic tastes. Catholic with a small "c", of course."

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

Synonyms for catholic

Antonyms for catholic

Related Words

Word Forms

• more catholic
• most catholic
• Catholic

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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