catholicism
/kəˈθɒlɪsɪzəm/
catholicism means the faiths, practices and doctrines of the Catholic Church, usually the Roman Catholic Church. It carries an Arena rating of 1396, earned across 23 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, catholicism ranks #3,145 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,915 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #4,255 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #4,604 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
catholicism is pronounced /kəˈθɒlɪsɪzəm/.
Why “catholicism” is a great word
The faith, practices, and doctrines of the Catholic Church, especially the Roman Catholic Church. From Catholic (from Late Latin catholicus, from Greek katholikos, meaning "universal") + -ism (suffix forming nouns of action or practice). First attested in English c. 1610s. Unlike Protestantism, which defines itself by a decisive break, or catholicity, which suggests a broadness of spirit, Catholicism denotes the specific, sedimented reality of an institution. It is the scent of incense clinging to ancient stone, the precise geometry of a rosary bead passing between thumb and forefinger, and the resonant Latin cadence echoing in a vaulted nave—the tangible, accumulating weight of a universal idea made insistently, architecturally particular.
Etymology
Compare French catholicisme.
noun
- The faiths, practices and doctrines of the Catholic Church, usually the Roman Catholic Church.e.g.“Catholicism is the second largest religious body after Sunni Muslims” — 2011, Connie Green, Religious Diversity, Children's Literature, page 156:
- The state or quality of being catholic or universal; catholicity.e.g.“1664-1667, Jeremy Taylor, Dissuasive from Popery
this broken consent is not an infallible testimony of the catholicism of the doctrine”
- Liberality of sentiment; breadth of view.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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