categorize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to arrange in categories or classes; classify.
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to describe by labeling or giving a name to; characterize.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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categoristnoun
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categorizationnoun
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decategorizationnoun
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subcategorizationnoun
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decategorizeverb (used with object)
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miscategorizeverb (used with object)
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recategorizeverb (used with object)
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miscategorizedadjective
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uncategorizedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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categorizesimple
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categorizessimple
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have categorizedperfect
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has categorizedperfect
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am categorizingprogressive
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are categorizingprogressive
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is categorizingprogressive
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have been categorizingperfect progressive
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has been categorizingperfect progressive
Past
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categorizedsimple
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had categorizedperfect
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was categorizingprogressive
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were categorizingprogressive
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had been categorizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of categorize
First recorded in 1695–1705; categor(y) + -ize
Explanation
If you decided to categorize your wardrobe, you could sort it by type (pants or shirts), or by color. To categorize is to put something into a category. When you think of categorizing things, imagine taking a pile of marbles and putting them into little boxes by color. You are sorting things by how they are alike. Scientists categorize animals and plants by their properties. Doctors categorize illnesses by whether they are caused by viruses or bacteria. In movies, high school students are often categorized as jocks, popular kids, troublemakers, and geeks.
Vocabulary lists containing categorize
Vocabulary of the Common Core
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Content Summary G.2: Regionalization
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Content Summary 5.1: Causes of the Atlantic Revolutions
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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:
“Consumers tend to categorize prices into ranges, so having a price be under $10 can feel different than a price that is $10 and above, even when the actual monetary difference is negligible.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Soon, the word became a stand-in for “catchy,” shorthand that could be used to categorize just about any song with a single word.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
Apps like Rocket Money can link bank accounts, categorize spending habits and flag unused subscriptions.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 31, 2026
The film’s title translates to “national treasure,” another clichéd term thrown around when trying to categorize greatness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
Many natives, seeking to categorize the newcomers, were open to the possibility that they might belong to the realm of the supernatural.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Just 16% of respondents expressed a state of confidence about their money, a separate bucket that the survey categorizes as financially “fulfilled.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
Wall Street categorizes metals as precious, base/industrial, and maybe “other” for the weird ones.
From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025
Four levels are used to categorizes scores: advanced, proficient, standard nearly met and standard not met.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2025
Yeh categorizes sweet salads with affection and a wink: cookie salads, Jell-O salads, candy bar salads, fluffs.
From Salon ● Apr. 27, 2025
Sister Miriam Joseph* categorizes the relation of the trivial arts as follows: logic is concerned with the thing-as-it-is-known; grammar is concerned with the thing-as-it-is-symbolized; rhetoric is concerned with the thing-as-it-is-communicated.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
It has remained on the menu despite being categorized as a “limited time” item when it first launched in 2022.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
Kashkari categorized the labor market as decent, but mostly moving sideways.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
These interpretations may sometimes be relevant, but when they appear reflexively, patients stop feeling understood and start feeling categorized and analyzed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
A spokesperson for Booking.com says: "If a particular region can be categorized as disputed or impacted by conflict, we add information to our platform to help ensure that travellers can make a well-informed choice."
From BBC ● May 24, 2026
A helpful chart from the city categorized every home as a Tudor, English, or French style and laid out the appropriate colors for architects and homeowners alike.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
“Historically, categorizing these emerging modes of transportation has presented tracking challenges,” a spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told The Times in May.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Apps are great for tracking spending and automatically categorizing — making it easy to see that you spent this much more on food than clothes, or what you’re putting toward subscriptions.
From MarketWatch ● May 14, 2026
I often wonder: Does their categorizing need extend to the subatomic realm?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
That's the lower limit of categorizing objects on the Torino Scale.
From Salon ● Mar. 3, 2025
Children can explore the timbre, production, and material of the instruments to come up with their own ways of categorizing them.
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.
