Etymology From Old French catholique, from Latin catholicus, from Ancient Greek καθολικός (katholikós, “universal”), from κατά (katá, “according to”) + ὅλος (hólos, “whole”).
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
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:
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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, Journal of Archaeological Science (1995) 22, 789-797
2
Alternative letter-case form of Catholic.
3
Obsolete Common or prevalent; especially universally prevalent.
4
Usually, Of people and their feelings 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, 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 23, Henry A. Reed, “Art. IV.—Catholicity”, in Methodist Review, page 377:
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"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:
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:
5
Obsolete, Of medicines or remedies Universally applicable.
6
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 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:
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:
Etymology From Old French catholique, from Latin catholicus, from Ancient Greek καθολικός (katholikós, “universal”), from κατά (katá, “according to”) + ὅλος (hólos, “whole”).
1
A member of a Catholic (western Christian) church.
2
Ellipsis, Often A member of the Roman Catholic Church (which is also elliptically called the Catholic Church).
The wife of the Prime Minister is a Catholic.
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:
Etymology From Old French catholique, from Latin catholicus, from Ancient Greek καθολικός (katholikós, “universal”), from κατά (katá, “according to”) + ὅλος (hólos, “whole”).
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.
Who or what is a Catholic? This Greek word has become one of the chief battlegrounds in western Latin Christianity, for it is used in different ways which outside observers of Christian foibles find thoroughly confusing. The word ‘Catholic’ is the linguistic equivalent of a Russian doll. It may describe the whole Christian Church founded two thousand years ago in Palestine, or the western half of the Church which split from mainstream eastern Christianity a thousand years ago, or that part of the western half which remained loyal to the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) after the sixteenth century, or a Protestant European Christian who thought that the Bishop of Rome was Antichrist, or a modern ‘Anglo-Catholic’ faction within the Anglican Communion. How can the word describe all of these things and still have any meaning? I have written this book about the sixteenth-century Reformation in part to answer that question. The Reformation introduced many more complications to the word; in fact there were very many different Reformations, nearly all of which would have said that they were simply aimed at recreating authentic Catholic Christianity. For simplicity’s sake I will take for granted that this book examines multiple Reformations, some of which were directed by the Pope. From now on I will continue to use the shorthand term ‘Reformation’, but readers should therefore note that this is often intended to embrace both Protestantism and the religious movements commonly known as Tridentine Catholicism, the Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation: the revitalized part of the old Church which remained loyal to the Pope. ’Catholic’ is clearly a word which a lot of people want to possess. By contrast, it is remarkable how many religious labels started life as a sneer: the Reformation was full of angry words.2003, Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History, Penguin, →ISBN, page xviii-xix:
2
Of the Roman Catholic church in particular.
The Church of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic one.
Catholic churches are adorned differently from Protestant ones.
1 more example
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: