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.).
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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:
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
Merlin, meanwhile, is using AI-powered cameras to detect and classify objects.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
All of them must have pedals to classify as an e-bike.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Critics say Japan also differs from many other countries by having out-of-date building regulations that can classify data centres as offices and not industrial facilities.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
“Canon” was the term we used to classify any movie, book, game, song, or TV show of which Halliday was known to have been a fan.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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
In Goleta, municipal code classifies licensed gun stores as “general retail,” the same designation given to shops selling sporting goods, clothing, furniture and a wide variety of other items.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 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
The UN agency classifies El Nino events as weak, moderate, strong or very strong, meaning it is set to reach the third-highest level out of four.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026
In Plato’s allegory of the metals, the philosopher classifies men into groups of gold, silver, and lead.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
The details of that framework, which was designed over the summer, remain classified.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
She told the court that seeking justice for Tiananmen victims is a moral duty, which "should not be classified as incitement to commit a crime".
From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026
There are three known living species of orangutan - Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli - all of which are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Mars is commonly classified as a "stagnant lid" planet because, unlike Earth, its outer shell is not divided into moving tectonic plates.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
“I’m sure your elixir is fine for keeping a body regular, but I think it can hardly be classified as medicine.”
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
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
That includes classifying Astra as reaching a "critical cybersecurity threshold," which means OpenAI believes the model is capable of finding and exploiting cybersecurity gaps.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 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
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 fact, mathematicians started analyzing and classifying the points where a function blows up: singularities.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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.
