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A categorical statement says that something is definitely true, or definitely false. There is no “maybe,” no “it depends,” no middle. “I will not go” can be categorical; “I might not go” is not. You see the word in news, law, and careful writing more than in chat. Though actually, calling a denial categorical only tells you the speaker sounded sure — it does not prove they are right. The word looks like category, and they are from the same family, but in ordinary English categorical does not mean “sorted into groups.” It means “said with no doubt.”
斬釘截鐵的；斷然的
組成從晚期拉丁文 catēgoricus 加上 -al。表面上看是 category + -ical。零件說的是「屬於某一類」，但日常真正的意思是「說得像清楚的是或不是」。
同家族的字
- categorythe stem these words are built from
- categoricallythe adverb: in that sure, no-doubt way
- categorizesame family, but that verb is about putting things into groups, not about sounding sure
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
categoricaladj/ˌkætəˈɡɒɹɪk(ə)l/
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Absolute; having no exception.
- We now see that they [propositions] are either conditional or unconditional, or, as the logicians say, hypothetical (conditional) or categorical (unconditional).
- 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.
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Of, pertaining to, or using a category or categories.
categoricalnoun/ˌkætəˈɡɒɹɪk(ə)l/
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human-scienceslogicmathematicsA categorical proposition.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。