classify
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to arrange or organize by classes; order according to class.
- Synonyms:
- group, categorize, rate, rank, class
-
to assign a classification to (information, a document, etc.).
-
to limit the availability of (information, a document, etc.) to authorized persons.
verb
-
to arrange or order by classes; categorize
-
government to declare (information, documents, etc) of possible aid to an enemy and therefore not available to people outside a restricted group
Other Word Forms
- classifiable adjective
- classifier noun
- misclassify verb (used with object)
- nonclassifiable adjective
- overclassify verb (used with object)
- preclassify verb (used with object)
- unclassifiable adjective
- unclassifiableness noun
- unclassifiably adverb
- unclassifying adjective
Etymology
Origin of classify
First recorded in 1790–1800; from Latin classi(s) class + -fy
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.
The vice president pretended to pivot from “a longer discussion” of the subject, but then he immediately started pontificating about the culture’s “desire” to classify “celestial beings who fly around “as aliens.”
From Salon • Apr. 1, 2026
Moor Mother’s discography, much like her professional life, is difficult to classify.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 31, 2026
One early smart machine was the Mark I Perceptron, an “artificial brain,” invented in 1958 by the psychologist Frank Rosenblatt, that could learn to classify simple patterns, such as geometric shapes and handwritten letters.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026
"The central and innovative approach of our study is to classify patient data according to the severity of the original COVID-19 disease," says Yang Li.
From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2026
I’d never been to church and had never stopped to classify my thoughts into good ones and bad ones.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
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.
