catalog

American  

[kat-l-awg, -og] / ˈkæt lˌɔg, -ˌɒg /

Or catalogue

noun

• catalogs
  plural

1. a list or record, as of items for sale or courses at a university, systematically arranged and often including descriptive material.

   a stamp catalog.

   Synonyms:

   record, register, roster

2. something that contains such a list or record, as a book, leaflet, or file.

3. a list of the contents of a library or a group of libraries, arranged according to any of various systems.

   Synonyms:

   record, register, roster

4. any list or record.

   a catalog of complaints.

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verb (used with object)

cataloged, catalogued, cataloging, cataloguing

1. to enter (items) in a catalog; make a catalog of.

verb (used without object)

cataloged, catalogued, cataloging, cataloguing

1. to produce a catalog.

2. to have a specified price as listed in a catalog.

   This model catalogs for $49.95.

3. to offer merchandise in a mail-order catalog.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or carrying on business through a mail-order catalog.

   catalog sales.

Usage

What does catalog mean? A catalog is a list or record of items. It is sometimes spelled catalogue. It commonly refers to a list of things being offered, such as items for sale or courses at a school. The point of such a catalog is typically to arrange the information in an orderly way—often with descriptions—so that the items can be easily found. The word often refers to a printed copy of the list, especially in the context of items available for purchase from a particular company. Catalog can also be used to refer to a collection of works, such as by a particular artist, as in I love every album in her catalog. A card catalog is a file containing information about the books and other materials held in a library. Card catalogs were once commonly physical cabinets of drawers containing cards but now often exist as online catalogs. Sometimes, catalog is used in a very general way as another way of saying list, as in a catalog of complaints. Catalog can also be used as a verb meaning to record items with a list, as in Please catalog all of the new titles. Example: The course catalog lists all of the classes that are available to take.

Synonym Usage

See list ¹.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cataloger
  noun
• catalogist
  noun
• cataloguer
  noun
• cataloguist
  noun
• miscatalog
  verb (used with object)
• miscatalogue
  verb (used with object)
• recatalog
  verb (used with object)
• catalogic
  adjective
• catalogical
  adjective
• catalogistic
  adjective
• noncatalog
  adjective
• noncatalogue
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• catalogs
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of catalog

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English cataloge, from Late Latin catalogus, from Greek katálogos “a register” (akin to katalégein “to count up”), equivalent to kata- “down, against, back” + -logos reckoning; see cata-

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Explanation

A catalog is a book that lists many things: the most common type of catalog is for a store. A catalog is an organized list that appears in book or pamphlet form. The Sears catalog tells you all the things you can buy at Sears, along with pictures of the items and what they cost. But you can also use catalog to mean any kind of listing. In an argument, you might say, "Why don't you just make a catalog of all my faults!" When you're making a catalog of any kind, you're cataloging.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

catalog catalogs cataloged cataloging catalogued cataloguing

“Having a big emotional range is important to me — being able to weave in and out of music that feels sarcastic and fun, and then getting really deep,” Nigro said of Devon Again’s catalog.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026

"The Elvis Plaintiffs' iconic collective catalog contains some of the most groundbreaking, revolutionary, influential, and enduring musical compositions in human history," the case states.

From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026

Bambino’s story is one of many amusing anecdotes recounted by Susannah Fullerton in “Great Writers and the Cats Who Owned Them,” a charming catalog of felines who have helped shape Western literature.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Its antenna arrays detect radio signals from celestial objects, allowing scientists to observe and catalog sources across the southern sky.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026

Grace’s mom and she looked at them together like they were shopping in a catalog.

From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway

Confirming moons beyond our Solar System would do more than add another category of objects to astronomical catalogs.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026

“Retailers that successfully provide product catalogs, inventory feeds, merchant data, store information, reviews and other structured content to AI agents may gain a significant advantage,” the analysts said.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

Beyond pricing assistance, AI agents also search catalogs of products, build shopping carts and complete purchases on Shopify stores.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Now several of them are licensing their catalogs to those same companies, and the deals are starting to turn into products.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026

I’d often pull out the collection of college catalogs I’d picked up and lay them out on my bed.

From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad

In Sierra Vista, Ann Nichols, 72 and a Democratic-leaning independent, could scarcely get the words out fast enough as she cataloged her outrage.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2026

The cataloged facts of her age, place of birth, and marital status suggest the breadth of a life he does not know, and he is seized with the curiosity to find her.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Less than 1% of what constituted the towers’ total steel was preserved, cataloged and eventually transported domestically and internationally as part of a program launched by the Port Authority in 2009.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

Since the 1990s, scientists have cataloged more than 6,300 worlds orbiting stars other than our sun.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

But this seems unreasonable: modern libraries, after all, keep records of duplicate volumes, and their ancient counterpart was no less carefully cataloged.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

At a time when cataloging travel woes have become such a big part of the cultural conversation, it offers the ultimate escape.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

Buyers and sellers are seeing the biggest differences compared with last year in West Palm Beach, which saw a near-40% increase in pending sales, Redfin data cataloging the nation’s largest metropolitan areas show.

From Barron's ● May 26, 2026

His repeated attempts to flex expensive restaurant bills and hardman tough talk land like a waterlogged handkerchief after he’s spent song after song cataloging all the specific ways we’ve all hurt his feelings.

From Salon ● May 21, 2026

In 2013, von Konrat led a team of botanists and volunteers to survey the region, cataloging grasses, trees, and mosses in search of a location that matched the plant material found on the shoes.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 1, 2026

The ten pizza-slice video screens scrolled constantly changing images associated with each category in the library cataloging system.

From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein

"Once again, there was no early warning from our partners," Zelensky said, as he catalogued the damage, deaths and injuries.

From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026

Marshall in 2024, catalogued the system’s due process pathologies and all but invited a broader challenge.

From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2026

Three hundred years later, Gray’s Anatomy by Henry Gray reinforced the impression that the body had finally been catalogued, indexed and neatly organized – a system mapped and fully explained.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 21, 2026

Sloth jaws and sabertooth fangs and a truly astonishing amount of ancient vertebrae — all of it will be swaddled, catalogued and crated for the next two years.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026

Cory catalogued each of them and rated the likelihood of each one being a fossil.

From "The Season of Styx Malone" by Kekla Magoon

Buyers and sellers are seeing the biggest differences compared with last year in West Palm Beach, which saw a near-40% increase in pending sales, Redfin data cataloguing the nation’s largest metropolitan areas show.

From Barron's ● May 26, 2026

“The cataloguing and photographing of the notebook was a valid part of the inventory search,” he wrote.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026

He believes people often only realise the value of cards after cataloguing them, adding: "My friend who is a big Pokemon collector, his account came out at about £100,000."

From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026

A graduate program in archival science at Pratt helped him gather focus, while turning him on to the infinite history of sound data and cataloguing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 8, 2025

Stopping before the narrow garage, he sniffed the fumes from Paradise with great sensory pleasure, the protruding hairs in his nostrils analyzing, cataloguing, categorizing, and classifying the distinct odors of hot dog, mustard, and lubricant.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

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Related Words

• book
• catalogue
• file
• inventory
• list
• prospectus

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