categorical

English

Adjective

categorical (comparative more categorical, superlative most categorical)

1. absolute; having no exception
   • 1856, Robert Gordon Latham, Logic in the Application to Language^[1]:

     We now see that they [propositions] are either conditional or unconditional, or, as the logicians say, hypothetical (conditional) or categorical (unconditional).

   • 1900, Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Avon Books, (translated by James Strachey) pg. 74:

     Daytime interests are clearly not such far-reaching psychical sources of dreams as might have been expected from the categorical assertions that everyone continues to carry on his daily business in his dreams.

2. of, pertaining to, or using a category or categories

Synonyms

• (absolute): categoric
• (absolute): unconditional

Antonyms

• (absolute): hypothetical
• (absolute): conditional

Derived terms

• categorical imperative
• categoricalness

Related terms

• categoricity

Translations

absolute

Bulgarian: окончателен (bg), безусловен (bg) Czech: kategorický (cs)

French: catégorique (fr) m. and f. Spanish: tajante (es)

categories

Bulgarian: категоричен (bg)

French: catégoriel (fr) m., catégorielle (fr) f.