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• catholic
  catholic

  adjective

  broad or wide-ranging in tastes, interests, or the like; having sympathies with all; broad-minded; liberal.
• Catholic
  Catholic

  adjective

  of or relating to a Catholic church, especially the Roman Catholic Church.

catholic

¹ American  

[kath-uh-lik, kath-lik] / ˈkæθ ə lɪk, ˈkæθ lɪk /

adjective

1. broad or wide-ranging in tastes, interests, or the like; having sympathies with all; broad-minded; liberal.

2. universal in extent; involving all; of interest to all.

3. pertaining to the whole Christian body or church.

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Catholic ² American  

[kath-uh-lik, kath-lik] / ˈkæθ ə lɪk, ˈkæθ lɪk /

adjective

1. of or relating to a Catholic church, especially the Roman Catholic Church.

2. Theology.

   1. (among Roman Catholics) claiming to possess exclusively the notes or characteristics of the one, only, true, and universal church having unity, visibility, indefectibility, apostolic succession, universality, and sanctity: used in this sense, with these qualifications, only by the Church of Rome, as applicable only to itself and its adherents and to their faith and organization; often qualified, especially by those not acknowledging these claims, by prefixing the word Roman.

   2. (among Anglo-Catholics) noting or pertaining to the conception of the church as the body representing the ancient undivided Christian witness, comprising all the orthodox churches that have kept the apostolic succession of bishops, and including the Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Church of Sweden, the Old Catholic Church (in the Netherlands and elsewhere), etc.

3. pertaining to the Western Church.

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noun

• Catholics
  plural

1. a member of a Catholic church, especially of the Roman Catholic Church.

Catholic ¹ British  

/ ˈkæθlɪk, ˈkæθəlɪk /

adjective

1. denoting or relating to the entire body of Christians, esp to the Church before separation into the Greek or Eastern and Latin or Western Churches

2. denoting or relating to the Latin or Western Church after this separation

3. denoting or relating to the Roman Catholic Church

4. denoting or relating to any church, belief, etc, that claims continuity with or originates in the ancient undivided Church

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noun

1. a member of any of the Churches regarded as Catholic, esp the Roman Catholic Church

catholic ² British  

/ ˈkæθəlɪk, kəˈθɒlɪklɪ, ˈkæθlɪk /

adjective

1. universal; relating to all men; all-inclusive

2. comprehensive in interests, tastes, etc; broad-minded; liberal

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• catholicalness
  noun
• catholicness
  noun
• anti-Catholic
  adjective
• non-Catholic
  adjective
• pro-Catholic
  adjective
• pseudo-Catholic
  adjective
• supercatholic
  adjective
• uncatholic
  adjective
• catholically
  adverb
• catholicly
  adverb
• pseudocatholically
  adverb
• supercatholically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Catholics
  plural

Etymology

Origin of catholic¹

First recorded in 1300–1350; Middle English, from Latin catholicus, from Greek katholikós “general,” from kathól(ou) “universally” (contraction of phrase katà hólou “according to the whole”; see cata-, holo-) + -ikos -ic

Origin of Catholic²

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English; special use of catholic

Explanation

When capitalized, Catholic refers to the Catholic Church. With a lower-case "c," catholic means "universal" and "inclusive." If you listen to anything from hip-hop to Baroque, you have catholic taste in music. When it entered the English language in the sixteenth century, catholic simply meant "general" or "common." Applied to the Western Church, it essentially meant "the Church universal," or the whole body of Christian believers, as opposed to separate congregations. After the Reformation, the Western Church called itself the Catholic Church to distinguish itself from communities of faith that were no longer obedient to Rome. This usage remains the most common, although you can still use catholic to mean general.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

catholic Catholic Catholics

Not every editor is quite as catholic with a little c, as ecumenical, as excited about such a range of writing as I am.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026

Its owners, the Institute of Our Lady of Mercy, a catholic order based in Leeds, said it hoped to find a "charitable" use for the land and buildings.

From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2025

When she spoke to wide audiences, her language was careful and catholic; one often had the sense that she was trying to say as little as possible beyond her talking points.

From Salon ● Dec. 13, 2024

Last week, a catholic priest at a West Side parish cited Flacco’s unforeseen arrival while giving his sermon during a Mass to celebrate the Epiphany.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 12, 2024

But a strange and catholic selection of citizens tiptoed to the chapel door and peered in and went away—lawyers and laborers and clerks and bank tellers, most of them past middle age.

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

Visiting some of Italy's many churches is another way to shelter from the heat, while absorbing the Catholic nation's heritage.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Each year, she helped select a student to receive a few thousand dollars at Notre Dame College, a small Catholic school outside Cleveland.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

A Catholic, he wonders if data centers are akin to the apple in the Garden of Eden.

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026

But Poland is a Catholic stronghold and people are already flocking to the unfinished site -- whether out of faith or sheer curiousity.

From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026

Boyle, too, evidently thought there was only a small number of ‘more Catholic laws’, and these were the laws of nature properly so called.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Vietnam has more than 7.5 million Catholics, accounting for about 7.4 percent of the population, according to the Vatican's official news outlet.

From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026

This was at odds with the beliefs of Roman Catholics, who look to church teaching and tradition along with the Bible as sources of religious authority.

From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026

Remains were also taken from Polish Jews and Catholics, those with mental illness, political prisoners, Belgian resistance fighters and French and Polish soldiers.

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

Oklahoma Catholics have shown that it’s possible, with the Diocese of Tulsa relying almost entirely on private funding.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

Sometimes he would think about the relationship of Catholics and the military.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy