As a [[Christianity|Christian]] ecclesiastical term, ''Catholic'' - from the Greek language adjective {{Polytonic|καθολικός}}, meaning "general" or "universal"[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2351864] - is described in the Oxford English Dictionary as follows:

:~Church, (originally) whole body of Christians; ~, belonging to or in accord with (a) this, (b) the church before separation into Greek or Eastern and Latin or Western, (c) the Latin Church after that separation, (d) the part of the Latin Church that remained under the Roman obedience after the Reformation, (e) any church (as the Anglican) claiming continuity with (b)."<ref>The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 7th edition (1982)</ref>