catalogue
Britishnoun
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a complete, usually alphabetical list of items, often with notes giving details
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a book, usually illustrated, containing details of items for sale, esp as used by mail-order companies
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a list of all the books or resources of a library
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a publication issued by a university, college, etc, listing courses offered, regulations, services, etc
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a list of wool lots prepared for auction
verb
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to compile a catalogue of (a library)
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to add (books, items, etc) to an existing catalogue
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of catalogue
C15: from Late Latin catalogus, from Greek katalogos, from katalegein to list, from kata- completely + legein to collect
Explanation
A catalogue is a list of things. Those glossy booklets from your favorite clothing shops that fill your mailbox are catalogues, and so is that online list you consult to find a book at the library. A catalogue — also spelled catalog — can be a list of anything, arranged in some order, and when you list things, you catalogue them. If you're particularly peeved at your brother, you might catalogue for him every annoying thing he's done lately. If you've ever worked in a library, you may have been assigned to catalogue new books, or, at your office, you might catalogue all the printers, listing the make and model of each one.
Vocabulary lists containing catalogue
Break It Down: Cata
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Latin Love, Vol II: cadere
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Churchill's "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat" speech (1940)
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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.
“However artists are not simply catalogue assets, and innovation cannot be used to override artists’ rights.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
Projects such as the Foodome Project are now attempting to catalogue this hidden chemical universe.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 17, 2026
In June 2024, Russia's Litfond auction house listed in its catalogue a second edition of Pushkin's "The Prisoner of the Caucasus", a book corresponding to a copy stolen from the BnF.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
To see Travolta’s latest films on your screen, you’d have to scroll into the dead zone of a streamer’s catalogue.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026
The members went street by street to catalogue the number of houses boarded up, infected, and open.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
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.
