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Glite Dictionary
to catholicize

to catholicize

9.9
To make people follow the Catholic religion
  • verb
  • /ˈkæθəˌlaɪz/
translation icon : catalizar
  • Some historians debate how successful the government was in its effort to catholicize the region.

Examples

  • The missionaries hoped to catholicize the indigenous population through education and outreach.

  • They plan to catholicize the new community center.

  • During the reign of the new monarch, there was an attempt to catholicize the entire country.

  • The church catholicised the local school last year.

  • The missionary aimed to catholicize the indigenous population by teaching them the faith.

  • Efforts to catholicize the region involved establishing schools and churches.

  • During the 17th century, many explorers tried to catholicize the newly discovered territories.

Synonyms

to convert
vsto catholicize
131 4.5

Change your religion, or persuade someone else to do this

focuses specifically on causing adoption of Catholic beliefs and practices
to latinize
vsto catholicize
9.9

To make a person or group adopt Roman Catholic customs and practices

is broader, covering any Catholic practices not limited to Latin Church rites

Antonyms

to secularize
4 7.6

To remove religious control from places like schools or hospitals

to apostatize
  • Formal
1 9.9

To leave a religion and stop believing its teachings

How Persuasive

to catholicize
9.9
to persuade
472 2.7
to encourage
∞ 2.3
to suggest
∞ 1.6

Surface Forms

catholicize infinitive
catholicized past
catholicized past participle
catholicizing present participle
catholicizes third person singular

Morphology

catholicize = Catholic (semi-transparent) = catholic + ize

The word is built transparently from 'Catholic' plus '-ize', but the sense of converting someone to Catholicism is somewhat specialized.

Etymology

Catholicize comes from catholic, which comes from an old Greek word meaning 'whole' or 'universal', and the ending -ize means 'to make'. So to catholicize someone is to make them part of the Catholic Church and change their beliefs to Catholicism.