# catalogue

Pronunciation: UK say "KAT-uh-log" /ˈkæt.əˌlɒɡ/; US say "KAT-uh-lawg" /ˈkæt.əˌlɔɡ/

## Noun

1. A complete list of items such as books, names or pictures, arranged in a clear order, for example alphabetically or by date.
   - Simple: A full list of things such as books, names or pictures, put in a clear order.
   - _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._
2. A magazine in which a shop or company shows the goods it sells, so that customers can order them and have them delivered.
   - Simple: A magazine from a shop that shows things you can order and have sent to your home.
   - _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._
4. All the songs or recordings made by a particular performer or composer, or owned by a record company, taken as a whole.
   - Simple: All the songs or records made by a singer, band or writer of music, or owned by a record company.
   - _The band's entire catalogue is now available on streaming services._
   - _A music publisher has bought the rights to the composer's catalogue._
5. A succession of unwelcome or unpleasant things, often of much the same kind.
   - Simple: A series of bad things, one after another, often of 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._

## Verb

3. To make a systematic list or record of a set of things, or to enter an item in such a list or catalogue.
   - Simple: To make a careful list or record of things, or to add something to a list like this.
   - _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._

## Noun

6. In computing, a list of the files held in a directory or on a storage device. *(dated)*
   - Simple: On a computer, a list that shows the files saved in one place.
   - _He put in the floppy and called up the catalogue to find the game he had saved the night before._
   - _Each time you save a program, the catalogue is updated with its name and size._

## Other meanings

- (verb) In stamp collecting, to price or sort stamps by looking them up in a catalogue.

## 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/catalogue (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).