catholick

Catholick is an archaic or variant spelling of the word Catholic. It originates from Late Latin and Greek roots meaning universal, and it was commonly used in Early Modern English to refer to the Catholic Church or to something related to Catholicism.

Historically, catholick appeared as both an adjective and a noun in older English texts. It could denote the universal church as a concept, or designate the Roman Catholic Church and its adherents. In this period, capitalization was not as standardized as today, so the form with a k appears in various writings.

In contemporary English, the standard forms are Catholic (capitalized when referring to the Church or its members) and catholic (lowercase when used in the sense of universal or all-embracing). The archaic spelling catholick is now largely confined to historical works, transcriptions of older documents, or quotations from texts that retain historical spellings.

There is no modern denomination known as the "Catholick" church. Today’s discussions use terms such as Roman Catholic, or simply Catholic, and distinguish among related movements (for example, Old Catholic or Anglican Catholic) through standard capitalization and spelling. The word catholick may still appear in bibliographies or in discussions of linguistic history to illustrate spelling variation in historical English.