classify

American  

[klas-uh-fahy] / ˈklæs əˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

• classifies,
  present (3rd person singular)
• classified,
  past participle,  past
• classifying
  present participle

1. to arrange or organize by classes; order according to class.

   Synonyms:

   group, categorize, rate, rank, class

2. to assign a classification to (information, a document, etc.).

3. to limit the availability of (information, a document, etc.) to authorized persons.

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classify British  

/ ˈklæsɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. to arrange or order by classes; categorize

2. government to declare (information, documents, etc) of possible aid to an enemy and therefore not available to people outside a restricted group

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• classifier
  noun
• unclassifiableness
  noun
• misclassify
  verb (used with object)
• overclassify
  verb (used with object)
• preclassify
  verb (used with object)
• classifiable
  adjective
• nonclassifiable
  adjective
• unclassifiable
  adjective
• unclassifying
  adjective
• unclassifiably
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• classifying
  present
• classified
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• classify
  simple
• classifies
  simple
• have classified
  perfect
• has classified
  perfect
• am classifying
  progressive
• are classifying
  progressive
• is classifying
  progressive
• have been classifying
  perfect progressive
• has been classifying
  perfect progressive

Past

• classified
  simple
• had classified
  perfect
• was classifying
  progressive
• were classifying
  progressive
• had been classifying
  perfect progressive

Future

• will classify
  simple
• will have classified
  perfect
• will be classifying
  progressive
• will have been classifying
  perfect progressive

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.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

classify classifies classified classifying

Despite largely controlling the tasks and pay, the platforms typically classify the workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

For much of Wales and Northern England, the three-day run of temperatures of 25C or above required to classify as a heatwave will not be met.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

Astronomers classify this type of object as a brown dwarf.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026

But experts cautioned against reading too much into year-over-year numbers that can fluctuate based on many factors — including how authorities classify and count certain offenses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026

But in fact Charles was the first person to fully study and classify barnacles.

From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman

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

Food and Drug Administration classifies zinc oxide as safe and effective.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026

That’s far from the 20% drop that classifies a bear market, Mayfield pointed out.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 12, 2026

That is because Dakhla is in Western Sahara, an area which the United Nations classifies as a "non-self-governing territory".

From BBC ● May 24, 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

When part of the emitted light is classified as useful work, the theory moves smoothly into the semi-classical limit.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

Since mid‑July, Rijkswaterstaat, the national water management agency, has classified the situation as an "actual water shortage".

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

This is one benefit of doing classified work.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

The school’s population includes about 30 students classified as homeless.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

I said at the outset of this chapter that societies classified in the same category are not all identical to each other, because humans and human groups are infinitely diverse.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Rather than classifying the incident as a fraud, JPMorgan often deemed it a scam and refused to reimburse the customer, according to the letter, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

In Kentucky, lawmakers recently passed a bill classifying TV-viewing patterns as “sensitive data” deserving of broader legal protections and transparency measures.

From Slate ● May 3, 2026

In the second half of the 19th Century, photography became one of the British Empire's most persuasive instruments for knowing - and classifying - India.

From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2026

The chemical has also been detected in human blood and urine, and the German Federal Office for Chemicals has recently proposed classifying TFA as potentially toxic to human reproduction.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 6, 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

Related Words

• allocate
• analyze
• arrange
• distribute
• divide
• label
• organize
• segregate