nihil obstat

1. 1.

   the phrase used by the official censor of the Roman Catholic Church to say that a publication has been examined and contains nothing offensive to the church

   Broadersanction
2. 2.

   authoritative approval

   Broadersanction

Questions about nihil obstat

What does nihil obstat mean?

nihil obstat means "the phrase used by the official censor of the Roman Catholic Church to say that a publication has been examined and contains nothing offensive to the church". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is nihil obstat a common word?

nihil obstat is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.