catalogue
Britishnoun
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a complete, usually alphabetical list of items, often with notes giving details
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a book, usually illustrated, containing details of items for sale, esp as used by mail-order companies
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a list of all the books or resources of a library
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a publication issued by a university, college, etc, listing courses offered, regulations, services, etc
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a list of wool lots prepared for auction
verb
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to compile a catalogue of (a library)
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to add (books, items, etc) to an existing catalogue
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of catalogue
C15: from Late Latin catalogus, from Greek katalogos, from katalegein to list, from kata- completely + legein to collect
Explanation
A catalogue is a list of things. Those glossy booklets from your favorite clothing shops that fill your mailbox are catalogues, and so is that online list you consult to find a book at the library. A catalogue — also spelled catalog — can be a list of anything, arranged in some order, and when you list things, you catalogue them. If you're particularly peeved at your brother, you might catalogue for him every annoying thing he's done lately. If you've ever worked in a library, you may have been assigned to catalogue new books, or, at your office, you might catalogue all the printers, listing the make and model of each one.
Vocabulary lists containing catalogue
Break It Down: Cata
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Latin Love, Vol II: cadere
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Churchill's "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat" speech (1940)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A major source of information that helped to reveal the original contents is the 426-page handwritten "Catalogue of the Library of Charles Darwin," compiled from 1875.
From Science Daily • Feb. 12, 2024
Catalogue retailer Argos says one particular piece is faring well among shoppers - a cardboard cut-out of Charles.
From Reuters • May 1, 2023
She was the chief editor emerita of the “Jasper Johns Catalogue Raisonné of Drawing,” published in 2018, as well as an adviser to the Houston collector Louisa Stude Sarofim.
From New York Times • Apr. 17, 2023
Researchers at the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust subsequently confirmed that three of the killer whales in the Norwegian encounter were known from the Scottish Killer Whale Catalogue.
From BBC • Jul. 23, 2021
Cordelia manages to convey that she herself would never wear a coat ordered from the Eaton’s Catalogue.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.