DictionaryAI

catalogue

UKKAT-uh-log/ˈkæt.əˌlɒɡ/KAT-uh-lawg/ˈkæt.əˌlɔɡ/

Pluralcatalogues

Verbcatalogues, cataloguing, catalogued

US spellingcatalog

7 meanings of catalogue

Practice

  1. 1
    organised listnouncountable
    A complete list of items such as books, names or pictures, arranged in a clear order, for example alphabetically or by date.

    The gallery's catalogue gives the title, date and size of each painting on display.

    The astronomer compiled a catalogue of the stars visible from the southern hemisphere.

    UsageUsually a catalogue of things, which people compile; an everyday list, such as a shopping list, is not a catalogue.

    Similarlist

  2. 2
    mail ordernouncountable
    A magazine in which a shop or company shows the goods it sells, so that customers can order them and have them delivered.

    My grandmother still buys most of her clothes from a catalogue rather than going into town.

    The garden centre's spring catalogue arrived this morning, packed with seeds and bulbs to order.

    UsagePeople order from or buy from a catalogue, and look through one.

    Similarbrochure

  3. 3
    make a listverbtransitive
    To make a systematic list or record of a set of things, or to enter an item in such a list or catalogue.

    Researchers want to catalogue every species of beetle found on the island.

    The report catalogues the damage the floods did to homes along the river.

    UsageKeeps the u in every form: catalogued, cataloguing.

    Similarlist, record, document, itemise, chronicle

    Note

    Beyond libraries and museums the verb often means setting down a series of things in detail for the record, as when a report or a commission catalogues damage, consequences or failures.

  4. 4
    recorded songsnouncountable
    All the songs or recordings made by a particular performer or composer, or owned by a record company, taken as a whole.

    The band's entire catalogue is now available on streaming services.

    A music publisher has bought the rights to the composer's catalogue.

    UsageA back catalogue is a performer's older work, as distinct from new releases.

    Similaroutput, discography

    Note

    In the music business the word means the body of work itself more than any written list: the songs or recordings of a performer or composer, owned and traded as an asset, as when a publisher buys the rights to one.

  5. 5
    string of failuresnounfigurativelycountable
    A succession of unwelcome or unpleasant things, often of much the same kind.

    The inquiry found that a catalogue of failures by the council had left the family without help.

    Their holiday was a catalogue of disasters, from lost luggage to a flooded hotel room.

    UsageUsually a catalogue of + plural noun: a catalogue of errors, of failures.

    Similarstring, series, litany, succession

    Note

    It is at home in accident inquiries and football reports alike, wherever a writer wants a run of blunders to sound like a list that could be read out item by item. Litany is its nearest synonym.

Less common meanings

  1. 6
    computer filesnoundatedcountable
    In computing, a list of the files held in a directory or on a storage device.

    He put in the floppy and called up the catalogue to find the game he had saved the night before.

    The program generates a catalogue of the files on the cartridge selected by the user, reads the catalogue into memory and erases the cartridge copy, so that an up-to-date copy is always generated.
    1983, “Helpline”, in Sinclair User

    Similardirectory

    Note

    A word familiar from early home computing: on the Sinclair Spectrum the CAT command showed the catalogue of files on a Microdrive cartridge. Later systems call the same thing a directory or a directory listing, so this use now sounds dated, though it lives on among enthusiasts who still repair those machines and run emulators of them.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The terminology was already used in earlier time-sharing computing: Dartmouth's original BASIC environment included CAT, short for CATALOG. dartmouth.edu
    • The Sinclair Spectrum's CAT command displayed the files on a Microdrive cartridge. worldofspectrum.net
    • Later systems use the term directory listing for such a list. learn.microsoft.com
  2. 7
    verb
    In stamp collecting, to price or sort stamps by looking them up in a catalogue.

Used only in American English, spelled catalog: a US college's yearly book of courses.

Practice

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Origin

The Middle English form was cathaloge. It came through Old French catalogue and Late Latin catalogus from Ancient Greek κατάλογος (katálogos), meaning “enrolment” or “register”. The Greek noun is built on the verb καταλέγω (katalégō, “to recount, make a list”), made of κατα- (kata-, “downwards, towards”) and λέγω (légō, “to say, to tell”). In English terms it is cata- plus -logue.