- without qualifications or conditions; absolute; positive; direct; explicit: said of a statement, theory, etc.
- of, as, or in a category
Origin of categorical
Late Latin categoricus: see category and -icalAlso cat·egor′ic
adjective
- An example of something categorical is an absolute denial that a witness lied under oath.
- An example of something categorical is the Dewey Decimal System used to classify books at the library.
The definition of categorical is something that is absolute or without conditions, or that is related to classes or divisions.
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categorical
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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categorical
also cat·e·gor·ic
adjective
- Being without exception or qualification; absolute: a categorical refusal.
- a. Of or relating to a category or categories.b. According to or using categories: a categorical arrangement of specimens.
Related Forms:
- cat′e·gor′i·cal·ly
adverb
- cat′e·gor′i·cal·ness
noun
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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MLA Style
"Categorical." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/Categorical.
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Categorical. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Categorical
Adjective
(comparative more categorical, superlative most categorical)
- absolute; having no exception
- of, pertaining to, or using a category or categories
Noun
(plural categoricals)
- (logic) A categorical proposition.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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MLA Style
"Categorical." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/Categorical.
APA Style
Categorical. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Categorical
Sentence Examples
- But both these unnatural forms, which are certainly not analyses of any conscious process of categorical reasoning, break down at once, because they cannot explain those moods in the third figure, e.g.
- Remains categorical so long as it is a belief without conditions.
- In other words, a categorical universal is often problematic, but a problematic is not the same as a hypothetical judgment.
- For her there was no categorical imperative, no moral code save to follow the promptings of her heart.
- On the other hand, if on the plan of Sigwart categorical universals were reducible to hypotheticals, the same inference would be a pure hypothetical syllogism, thus: If anything is a man it is mortal.
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