pigeonhole
Americannoun
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one of a series of small, open compartments, as in a desk, cabinet, or the like, used for filing or sorting papers, letters, etc.
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a hole or recess, or one of a series of recesses, for pigeons to nest in.
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Also called white hole. Also called pigeon hole,. Printing. white space created by setting words or lines too far apart.
verb (used with object)
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to assign to a definite place or to definite places in some orderly system.
to pigeonhole new ideas.
- Synonyms:
- catalog, categorize
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to lay aside for use or reference at some later, indefinite time.
We must pigeonhole this excellent plan until the time is ripe.
- Synonyms:
- file
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to put aside for the present, especially with the intention of ignoring or forgetting, often indefinitely.
to pigeonhole an unwanted invitation.
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to place in or as if in a pigeonhole or pigeonholes.
to pigeonhole papers.
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to fit or provide with pigeonholes.
The desk must be pigeonholed for all my papers.
noun
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a small compartment for papers, letters, etc, as in a bureau
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a hole or recess in a dovecote for pigeons to nest in
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informal a category or classification
verb
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to put aside or defer
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to classify or categorize, esp in a rigid manner
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pigeonholesimple
-
pigeonholessimple
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have pigeonholedperfect
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has pigeonholedperfect
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am pigeonholingprogressive
-
are pigeonholingprogressive
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is pigeonholingprogressive
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have been pigeonholingperfect progressive
-
has been pigeonholingperfect progressive
Past
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pigeonholedsimple
-
had pigeonholedperfect
-
was pigeonholingprogressive
-
were pigeonholingprogressive
-
had been pigeonholingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pigeonhole
Explanation
A pigeonhole is a small nesting area for a pigeon, or a similarly cozy compartment or alcove. If you feel like you're stuck in a restrictive category — only thought of as someone's sister, for example — that's another kind of pigeonhole. A cubbyhole in your desk is one kind of pigeonhole, and the little box where a domesticated pigeon sleeps is another. These original meanings date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By the 1870s, pigeonhole had also come to mean "an overly simplistic or restrictive category," and also "to assign someone to a rigid category." So when you assume that a circus clown couldn't also be a brilliant mathematician, you have pigeonholed him.
Vocabulary lists containing pigeonhole
The Legislative Branch, Sections 4–6
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Accountable
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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:
“If we embrace narrow group-based identities too fiercely, we cling to the very cages in which others would seek to trap us. We pigeonhole ourselves.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 31, 2026
"Aerospace has something for people with different backgrounds, different qualifications, there's so much variety. So don't pigeonhole yourself, there really is something for everyone here."
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2025
“If within being pigeonholed I can create a rich acting experience — which is why I became an actor — pigeonhole me, go ahead,” Bell says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2024
We wanted to cover a wide range of genres and a wide range of eras because we didn't want to pigeonhole the movie that it was going to be all boy band pop music.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2024
She had read the name Dr. Lister off a pigeonhole on the wall behind him, because if you pretend you know someone, they’re more likely to let you in.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
Somewhere along the way if you're a young actor coming up, you can bet there are pigeonholes for everyone.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2024
From left: Withings ScanWatch, Fossil Hybrid HR, Skagen Jorn, Fossil Gen 6 Hybrid What bothers me about the Stella design is how it somewhat pigeonholes your style.
From The Verge ● Jul. 16, 2022
It occludes the far subtler and more interesting insights that a genius can provoke, and too confidently pigeonholes an individual who knowingly rejected the stifling limitations of his country’s artificial racial binary for a dupe.
From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2018
Schumann created a nuanced new genre unfit for generic pigeonholes that includes aspects of opera, oratorio, chamber music and song.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2018
Based on these mini-experiments, modern grammarians have sorted words into grammatical categories that sometimes differ from the traditional pigeonholes.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
“I don’t want to be pigeonholed as the assassin.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
British coach Fran Jones - a namesake of the British number four - found herself "pigeonholed" coaching under-14s without being aware of opportunities that existed beyond that level.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
Many actors are pigeonholed by a successful TV series.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
Eva Longoria is unafraid to speak her mind, whether it’s about politics, Latino issues or being pigeonholed as sexy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2025
Jazz celebrity though he was, Duke Ellington disliked his music being pigeonholed as ‘jazz’; he preferred simply to call it ‘American music’, and he experimented in many forms and genres.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Points, too, for the solid casting, from the leads’ tricky pivoting from openness to caginess, to the criminally underseen Wasikowska, who navigates maternal complexities of worry and compassion that confound easy pigeonholing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
I was intrigued then when the pollster YouGuv, in combination with The Economist magazine, decided to take pigeonholing to a whole different level.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2024
And I don't know, I guess just not pigeonholing people.
From Salon ● Mar. 30, 2024
Where artists used to hate being pigeonholed, now they do the pigeonholing themselves.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2023
It offers no nifty formulas for pigeonholing people or decoding folkways and manners.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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.
