classify
Americanverb (used with object)
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classifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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classified,
past participle, past
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classifying
present participle
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to arrange or organize by classes; order according to class.
- Synonyms:
- group, categorize, rate, rank, class
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to assign a classification to (information, a document, etc.).
-
to limit the availability of (information, a document, etc.) to authorized persons.
verb
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to arrange or order by classes; categorize
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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
Derived Forms
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classifiernoun
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unclassifiablenessnoun
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misclassifyverb (used with object)
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overclassifyverb (used with object)
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preclassifyverb (used with object)
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classifiableadjective
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nonclassifiableadjective
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unclassifiableadjective
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unclassifyingadjective
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unclassifiablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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classifysimple
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classifiessimple
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have classifiedperfect
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has classifiedperfect
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am classifyingprogressive
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are classifyingprogressive
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is classifyingprogressive
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have been classifyingperfect progressive
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has been classifyingperfect progressive
Past
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classifiedsimple
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had classifiedperfect
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was classifyingprogressive
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were classifyingprogressive
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had been classifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of classify
First recorded in 1790–1800; from Latin classi(s) class + -fy
Explanation
Humans seem to have the need to classify things, arranging them into different classes by such unifying traits as size, color, or shape. It’s fine to do this to inanimate objects, but doing it to people can be very wrong. The word classify contains the base word class, which means "category" and comes from the Latin classis, which actually referred to an army or group called to arms. It eventually came to mean "a group," and thus classify means "to group." As a security measure, you can also classify information that is not to be shared. Writer Ambrose Bierce once said, “The small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify we give the name of knowledge.”
Vocabulary lists containing classify
Vocabulary of the Common Core
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Academic Vocabulary: Core Tier 2 Words, List 3
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Words Middle Schoolers Should Use for Comparing and Contrasting Texts
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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:
Meanwhile the US State Department continues to classify travel to China as a Level 2 advisory urging travellers to "exercise increased caution" because of the risk of arbitrary law enforcement, exit bans and detention.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
The invitation comes two days after a federal appeals court upheld the Pentagon's decision to classify Anthropic as a supply chain risk, which prohibits the United States military from using its models.
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
In his research, when he told the participants that AI can now authentically reproduce Scottish accents, their tendency to classify the synthetic voices as human was significantly reduced.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
The codes are used by doctors and insurance companies to classify diseases, symptoms and medical conditions, and are used for billing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
While Tony doesn’t classify as a close friend, we have worked on a couple of assignments together so I know where he lives.
From "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher
They developed the Nova system, which classifies the degree to which a food product is processed, from minimal to ultraprocessed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies the chemical as a probable carcinogen and has linked exposure to bladder cancer, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026
The ETC said that northern Europe, which it classifies as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the UK, had "outperformed all other European subregions".
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Sunscreen is regulated as a cosmetic in Europe, leading to more variety than in the U.S., which classifies it as an over-the-counter drug.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
He learns the endless terms, the vocabulary that classifies the details of ancient buildings, writing them on separate index cards and making illustrations on the back: architrave, entablature, tympanum, voussoir.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
The other gainer, communications services, was up only because tech giants Meta and Alphabet, not classified as tech stocks, outweighed losses for almost all the media and telecoms companies in the sector.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
In 2006, the Cook Political Report classified more than 100 congressional districts as competitive.
From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2026
Their work shows that insects previously classified as just two species actually represent five separate species.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026
More important, the patients with a body mass index of 35 or higher who took the highest dose of retatrutide were no longer classified as obese after undergoing treatment.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026
The majority of Langley’s female professionals had spent their time at the laboratory classified as computers.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
The CDC has not yet included the Pennsylvania deaths in its national tally while it reviews the records and develops standardized criteria for classifying measles deaths.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
Later in the fall, OpenAI changed the designation of GPT-5, classifying it as less dangerous.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
The region, made up of mountains surrounded by a desert steppe, receives just over 100 millimeters of annual rainfall, classifying it as an desert.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
"What we think is important to highlight is that without waveform models like ours, we could be detecting black hole mergers in dark matter environments, but systematically classifying them as having occurred in vacuum."
From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026
See if you can develop other ways of classifying these instruments in addition to the ways listed.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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.
