catholic
part of speech
adjective (Catholic; catholic); noun (a Catholic, Catholics)
meaning for a pupil
1) (Catholic, capital C) Belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, the Christian church led by the Pope: a Catholic school. tree →
2) (noun) A member of the Catholic Church. tree →
3) (catholic, small c, formal) Including many different kinds of things; wide-ranging: catholic tastes in music. tree →
sense in the lessons
In RE lessons pupils learn about Catholic churches, Mass and the Pope; many schools in Ireland, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA are Catholic schools. The small-c meaning is formal and rare. Phrases: Catholic school, Roman Catholic, a Catholic church, catholic tastes.
examples
- My cousin goes to a Catholic school. tree →
- Catholics go to Mass on Sundays. tree →
- The Pope is the leader of the Catholic Church. tree →
- Ireland has many Catholic churches. tree →
- (formal) He has catholic tastes and reads everything from comics to science books. tree →
- Our Catholic primary school is next to the church. tree →
note
Capital C for the Church and its members; small c for "wide-ranging". The religion is Catholicism. Catholics are Christians; so are Protestants and Orthodox Christians.
In the corpora
- The Reformation split western Christianity into Catholic and Protestant churches, which led to long wars and later to more religious freedom.
- Catholics and Orthodox count seven sacraments; most Protestants count two, baptism and communion.
- Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian churches baptise babies.
- Catholic children often receive First Communion at about seven or eight.
- A vicar or rector leads a Church of England parish; priests serve in Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «catholic» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.