catechize

American  

[kat-i-kahyz] / ˈkæt ɪˌkaɪz /

especially British, catechise

verb (used with object)

catechized, catechizing

1. to instruct orally by means of questions and answers, especially in Christian doctrine.

2. to question with reference to belief.

3. to question closely.

   Synonyms:

   probe, examine, quiz, interrogate

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catechize British  

/ ˈkætɪˌkaɪz /

verb

1. to teach or examine by means of questions and answers

2. to give oral instruction in Christianity, esp by using a catechism

3. to put questions to (someone)

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Other Word Forms

• catechist
  noun
• catechization
  noun
• catechizer
  noun
• catechistic
  adjective
• catechizable
  adjective
• uncatechized
  adjective
• catechistically
  adverb

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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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

catechize catechized catechizing

Then the Cardinal began to catechize the priest who had once been an assistant to his secretariat.

From Time Magazine Archive

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 Robert Herrick

Well, you needn't catechize me!" he said, nettled by her tone, "or not in that way, at any rate.

From Marriage à la mode by Mrs. Humphry Ward

Fletcher, however, still found means to catechize the children and to hold meetings in private.

From Fletcher of Madeley by Frederic W. Macdonald

There it was that steps were taken to catechize the masses of the Filipinos in their own homes.

From The Katipunan or The Rise and Fall of the Filipino Commune by Francis St. Clair

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

They preached, catechized, attracted the people by argument, by art, by prudence.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 41 of 55, 1691-1700 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century. by Emma Helen Blair

A Clergyman engaged in catechizing a village school, asked a youngster, “what his godfathers and godmothers did for him?”

From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2018

Were any of you born in New England, in the good old catechizing, church-going, school-going, orderly times?

From The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings by Harriet Beecher Stowe

After catechizing Kermode severely, she gave a very qualified assent; and returning to the hotel, he found the girl anxiously waiting for him.

From Prescott of Saskatchewan by W. Herbert Dunton

This morning the father, the Rev. Henry Erskine, has been catechizing a group of children at the kirk.

From A Handful of Stars Texts That Have Moved Great Minds by Frank Boreham

Supper over and the table cleared, he decided on further catechizing little Vada on points that still were a mystery to him.

From The Twins of Suffering Creek by Ridgwell Cullum

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