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

catechumen, categorematic, categorial, categorial grammar, categoric contact, categorical, categorical imperative, categorize, category, category a, category d

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 Forms

categorically, 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