catchall
Americannoun
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a bag, basket, or other receptacle for odds and ends.
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something that covers a wide variety of items or situations.
The list is just a catchall of things I want to see or do on vacation.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of catchall
1830–40, noun use of verb phrase catch all
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 term is less taxonomically specific and more of a catchall, used to refer to any photosynthesizing organism that isn’t a plant.
From Slate • Jun. 27, 2026
What was unusual in April was a record 668,000 increase in job openings in “professional and business services,” a catchall category of white-collar jobs in fields from technology to finance to law.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 2, 2026
Weight-loss drugs, a catchall term for Lilly’s family of GLP-1 medications, have continued to dominate the conversation.
From Barron's • Apr. 30, 2026
Corrections & Amplifications Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice is the catchall provision criminalizing conduct that is harmful to good order and discipline or brings discredit on the armed forces.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 5, 2026
They were also encouraged not to settle for old-fashioned and “bourgeois” gender roles—“bourgeois” being a catchall term for the upper middle classes of Imperial Russia who’d aspired to wealth and luxury.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
