categorical

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

/ ˌkæt ɪˈgɔr ɪ kəl, -ˈgɒr- /

adjective

without exceptions or conditions; absolute; unqualified and unconditional: a categorical denial.

Logic.

(of a proposition) analyzable into a subject and an attribute related by a copula, as in the proposition “All humans are mortal.”
(of a syllogism) having categorical propositions as premises.

of, relating to, or in a category.

Nearby words

Also cat·e·gor·ic.

Origin of categorical

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

SYNONYMS FOR categorical

1 positive, flat, downright.

Related forms

cat·e·gor·i·cal·ly, adverbcat·e·gor·i·cal·ness, nounnon·cat·e·gor·i·cal, adjectivenon·cat·e·gor·i·cal·ly, adverb

non·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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for categoric

This diagnosis, so categoric underneath its familiar form and somewhat faulty grammar, sounded a serious cry of alarm.
Meissonier |Henri Barbusse
For no other race of the Mediterranean world was the moral law based on the "categoric imperative."
The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire|T. R. Glover
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

Not a categoric prohibition, but a caution not to sail too near the wind in this matter.
Instigations|Ezra Pound

British Dictionary definitions for categoric

categorical

categoric

/ (ˌkætɪˈɡɒrɪkəl) /

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.