category
Pluralcategories
- 1A named or numbered group to which items are assigned based on shared features or set criteria.
Like the labeled mailboxes in an apartment lobby, each one set aside to hold a single resident's letters.
Tax forms divide income into several categories for reporting.
The judges placed each entry in a category that matched its style.
UsageThings fall into or belong to a category, or are put in one.
Similartype, kind, class, sort, group
Note
A word that began in logic. Everyday English keeps the sorting and drops the logic. Andrew Radford (1988) uses it the same way in grammar, where words like boy and girl belong to categories.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The cited work by Andrew Radford was first published in 1988. api.pageplace.de
- Radford uses boy and girl as examples of words belonging to grammatical categories. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meaning
- 2A collection of objects together with composable arrows between them, where every object has an identity arrow and arrow composition is associative.
Use it in a sentence
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Origin
Recorded in late Middle English, borrowed from French catégorie, going back through Late Latin catēgoria ("class of predicables") to Ancient Greek katēgoría.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The word is recorded in late Middle English. en.wiktionary.org
- English borrowed the word from French catégorie. en.wiktionary.org
- The French word derives from Late Latin catēgoria, meaning a class of predicables. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin word derives from Ancient Greek katēgoría. en.wiktionary.org