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Categorical vs Prototypical - What's the difference?

categorical | prototypical |

As adjectives the difference between categorical and prototypical

is that categorical is absolute; having no exception while prototypical is constituting or representing an original type of something that others are modelled on, or derived from.

As a noun categorical

is (logic) a categorical proposition.

categorical

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • absolute; having no exception
  • * '>citation
  • * 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.
  • of, pertaining to, or using a category or categories

    • Synonyms

    * absolute, categoric, unconditional

    Antonyms

    * exceptional, conditional, hypothetical, relative

    Derived terms

    * acategorical * categorical imperative * categoricalness

    Related terms

    * categoricity

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (logic) A categorical proposition.

    • prototypical

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • constituting or representing an original type of something that others are modelled on, or derived from

    • Synonyms

    *archetypal *archtypic *archetypical *prototypic

    Derived terms

    * prototypically