categorical

[kat-i-gawr-i-kuhl, -gor-]

adjective

without exceptions or conditions; absolute; unqualified and unconditional: a categorical denial.
Logic.
1. (of a proposition) analyzable into a subject and an attribute related by a copula, as in the proposition “All humans are mortal.”
2. (of a syllogism) having categorical propositions as premises.
of, relating to, or in a category.

Also cat·e·gor·ic.

Origin of categorical

1590–1600; < Late Latin catēgoric(us) (< Greek katēgorikós; see category, -ic) + -al¹

Related formscat·e·gor·i·cal·ly, adverbcat·e·gor·i·cal·ness, nounnon·cat·e·gor·i·cal, adjectivenon·cat·e·gor·i·cal·ly, adverbnon·cat·e·gor·i·cal·ness, nounun·cat·e·gor·i·cal, adjectiveun·cat·e·gor·i·cal·ly, adverbun·cat·e·gor·i·cal·ness, noun

Synonyms for categorical

1. positive, flat, downright.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for categoric

Historical Examples of categoric

Not a categoric prohibition, but a caution not to sail too near the wind in this matter.
Instigations
Ezra Pound
A second categoric message from her husband was the response.
Queen Hortense
L. Mhlbach
The Categoric Imperative in the individual is merely the result of his individual education.
A Review of the Systems of Ethics Founded on the Theory of Evolution
C. M. Williams
It was on this formal, categoric, and solemn declaration that we voted Art.
The Religious Persecution in France 1900-1906
Jane Milliken Napier Brodhead
The essential point is perhaps best brought out by Shaler in his distinction between sympathetic and categoric contacts.
Introduction to the Science of Sociology
Robert E. Park

British Dictionary definitions for categoric

categorical

categoric

adjective

unqualified; positive; unconditionala categorical statement
relating to or included in a category
logic another word for categorial

Derived Formscategorically, adverbcategoricalness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for categoric

categorical

adj.

1590s, as a term in logic, "unqualified, asserting absolutely," from Late Latin categoricus, from Greek kategorikos "accusatory, affirmative, categorical," from kategoria (see category). General sense of "explicit, unconditional" is from 1610s. Categorical imperative, from the philosophy of Kant, first recorded 1827. Related: Categorically.