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.
“I couldn’t have a better job,” he says of the work, which includes constantly discovering new parts of his father’s catalogue.
From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2026
But to what extent does the unprecedented catalogue of more than 100 charges of alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules cast a shadow over Guardiola's time in charge?
From BBC • May 19, 2026
If that does happen, Kelly's back catalogue suggests she will have made her mark somehow.
From BBC • Apr. 25, 2026
It is a contrast to the chaotic construction of Berlin's international airport -- a catalogue of problems meant it took 14 years to build the site, which finally opened in 2020.
From Barron's • Apr. 22, 2026
The government forbade any trafficking in Indian antiquities and had given the priest a general concession, authorizing him to catalogue whatever he found and hand it over to the museum.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
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.
