category
Americannoun
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any general or comprehensive division; a class.
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a classificatory division in any field of knowledge, as a phylum or any of its subdivisions in biology.
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Metaphysics.
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(in Aristotelian philosophy) any of the fundamental modes of existence, such as substance, quality, and quantity, as determined by analysis of the different possible kinds of predication.
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(in Kantian philosophy) any of the fundamental principles of the understanding, as the principle of causation.
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any classification of terms that is ultimate and not susceptible to further analysis.
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Also called Guggenheim. (used with a singular verb) categories. a game in which a key word and a list of categories, as dogs, automobiles, or rivers, are selected, and in which each player writes down a word in each category that begins with each of the letters of the key word, the player writing down the most words within a time limit being declared the winner.
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Mathematics. a type of mathematical object, as a set, group, or metric space, together with a set of mappings from such an object to other objects of the same type.
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Grammar. part of speech.
noun
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a class or group of things, people, etc, possessing some quality or qualities in common; a division in a system of classification
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metaphysics any one of the most basic classes into which objects and concepts can be analysed
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(in the philosophy of Aristotle) any one of ten most fundamental modes of being, such as quantity, quality, and substance
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(in the philosophy of Kant) one of twelve concepts required by human beings to interpret the empirical world
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any set of objects, concepts, or expressions distinguished from others within some logical or linguistic theory by the intelligibility of a specific set of statements concerning them See also category mistake
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Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of category
First recorded in 1580–90; from Late Latin catēgoria, from Greek katēgoría “accusation” (in logic, “predication”), from katēgoreîn “to accuse, affirm,” from kata- cata- + agoreúein “to speak before the agora 1 ” + -ia -y 3
Explanation
A category is a group of things that share some commonality. Think of the game show "Jeopardy!," and how each column is a different category of questions — like "Literary Characters" or "Potent Potables." The noun category has the sense of ordering or sorting. In Biology, the science of taxonomy is all about categorizing all living organisms. It might be an easier task to categorize books in a library according to genre (e.g., fiction, non-fiction, mysteries, etc.) or to categorize the shoes in your closet according to season.
Vocabulary lists containing category
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Break It Down: Cata
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Academic Vocabulary: Core Tier 2 Words, List 3
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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:
The current wave of ticket sales will be only for a category of seats, but won’t have a particular seat assignment yet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
The midscale category was declining last year, but has flipped to growth of 4% to 6% this year, he tells analysts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Under Grammy rules, songs nominated for the category must contain "meaningful use" of an Asian language.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
“What investors need to look out for is the prospect of tech-driven category disruption beyond this horizon,” the brokerage says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
The notion that African Americans support “get tough” approaches to crime is further complicated by the fact that “crime” is not a generic category.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
All of these categories can distort or exaggerate GDP for reasons that have little to do with the health of the overall economy.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
They have performed on the Grammys stage several times, and picked up four additional nominations, including in the the best pop duo/group performance and best music video categories, but have never won.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
“The categories didn’t exist as they do today.”
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
Instead, it reports results by sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability and English-learner status—the categories Washington requires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Asked to describe and classify mammals, he scribbled down an incomplete and absurd system of taxonomy—omitting categories, inventing others, lumping kangaroos with beavers, and pigs with elephants.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
