catechize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to instruct orally by means of questions and answers, especially in Christian doctrine.
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to question with reference to belief.
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to question closely.
- Synonyms:
- probe, examine, quiz, interrogate
verb
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to teach or examine by means of questions and answers
-
to give oral instruction in Christianity, esp by using a catechism
-
to put questions to (someone)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of catechize
1375–1425; late Middle English < Late Latin catēchizāre < Greek katēchízein to make (someone) learn by teaching orally, equivalent to katēch ( eîn ) to teach orally ( see catechist) + -izein -ize
Vocabulary lists containing catechize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Then the Cardinal began to catechize the priest who had once been an assistant to his secretariat.
From Time Magazine Archive
And thus it belongs to the ministers to catechize.
From Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint
Let a person catechize his own experiences on this subject: it will have a salutary effect.
From Revisiting the Earth by Hill, James Langdon
And he set himself at once, not to catechize the bank's ward about her expenditures, but to interest the girl in himself.
From Clark's Field by Herrick, Robert
It was his habit to walk when he talked, and he knew the general had come to catechize him.
From A Certain Rich Man by White, William Allen
I was, in my view, blessed to be raised in the church and catechized as a little kid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
“This exchange had catechized Julian on several points,” Ava thinks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2020
While they ate, they catechized her on her opinions, and were delighted to find that she believed in God and expected to vote Conservative when she was twenty-one.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 2, 2012
He did not see any reason, he said, why the U.S. people had to be catechized on this every morning before breakfast.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mrs. Dyke was the catechized instead of the catechizer, and it was an unaccustomed role, but she bore it like a soldier.
From The Right Knock A Story by Van-Anderson, Helen
A Clergyman engaged in catechizing a village school, asked a youngster, “what his godfathers and godmothers did for him?”
From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2018
It has also been resolved that part of the Sabbath afternoon be devoted to catechizing, as is now common in many Protestant churches in Germany and Switzerland.
From John Ronge: The Holy Coat Of Treves New German-Catholic Chruch by Anonymous
"Interest questions" are just what the words imply, and have about them no suspicion of the inquisitive and impertinent catechizing which only fools, and not even knaves, indulge in.
From Conversation What to Say and How to Say it by Conklin, Mary Greer
I flared with a childish resentment at this catechizing of his.
From Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) Ghost Stories by French, Joseph Lewis
Evelyn seems to have got off with only a severe catechizing; but many of his fellow-worshippers were imprisoned, and otherwise severely punished.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 377, March 1847 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
