catalog
Americannoun
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catalogs
plural
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a list or record, as of items for sale or courses at a university, systematically arranged and often including descriptive material.
a stamp catalog.
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something that contains such a list or record, as a book, leaflet, or file.
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a list of the contents of a library or a group of libraries, arranged according to any of various systems.
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any list or record.
a catalog of complaints.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
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to produce a catalog.
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to have a specified price as listed in a catalog.
This model catalogs for $49.95.
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to offer merchandise in a mail-order catalog.
adjective
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
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catalogernoun
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catalogistnoun
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cataloguernoun
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cataloguistnoun
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miscatalogverb (used with object)
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miscatalogueverb (used with object)
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recatalogverb (used with object)
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catalogicadjective
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catalogicaladjective
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catalogisticadjective
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noncatalogadjective
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noncatalogueadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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-
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.
Vocabulary lists containing catalog
ESL Library Vocabulary
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Researching Strategies and Using the Library
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Put It This Way: Synonyms for "Describe"
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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.
See Examples For:
Young returned his catalog to Spotify in 2024.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Shannon and Narducy have built these outings around the R.E.M. catalog, with each tour centering on an album which is performed in full, from start to finish.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
These rooms powerfully evoke what Kaplan in the catalog calls America’s “restless forward motion, powered by the conviction that tomorrow’s design would solve today’s problems.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester Research, said viewers will undoubtedly get access to a bigger catalog.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
I flipped through the Sears, Roebuck catalog, looking at all the things I would be able to buy with five dollars.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
“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
Metallica has one of the deepest catalogs and intensely-attached fandoms in rock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
QVC and HSN broadly welcome agents to complete purchases, proactively sending catalogs to companies like OpenAI and Google for AI visibility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
These catalogs are designed to make specialized scientific investigations easier by organizing and enhancing information derived from the main survey data.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
Maria’s stepfather, Jacob Marrel, was well known for his beautiful tulip catalogs.
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
The fossil, cataloged as MGB-512, is about 50 centimeters long and is housed at the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
Collisions are rare—the European Space Agency counts four of them involving cataloged objects in space—but they can make a mess.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 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
Fieldwork does produce new fossils, but important discoveries can also emerge from specimens that have already spent years stored, cataloged and protected in museums.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
And they recommended that the NIH establish a reference collection of cells: a central bank where all cultures would be tested, cataloged, and stored under maximum security, using state-of-the-art sterile techniques.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
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
He left 15 years ago and has spent much of the time since cataloging how he thought the institution was going astray.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
“Yes. Their index and cataloging operations are most impressive.”
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
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
Both these opposition leaders catalogued SNP shortcomings during the last Holyrood question time before the election.
From BBC ● Mar. 29, 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
In a letter to her, South Wales Police blamed a lack of cataloguing evidence tapes, and it was only in July 2021 when 8,605 tapes were digitised that Michaela's was found.
From BBC ● May 23, 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
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
When William died, the Friedmans were still cataloguing their library collection.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
