category
Americannoun
plural
categories-
any general or comprehensive division; a class.
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a classificatory division in any field of knowledge, as a phylum or any of its subdivisions in biology.
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Metaphysics.
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(in Aristotelian philosophy) any of the fundamental modes of existence, such as substance, quality, and quantity, as determined by analysis of the different possible kinds of predication.
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(in Kantian philosophy) any of the fundamental principles of the understanding, as the principle of causation.
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any classification of terms that is ultimate and not susceptible to further analysis.
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Also called Guggenheim. (used with a singular verb) categories. a game in which a key word and a list of categories, as dogs, automobiles, or rivers, are selected, and in which each player writes down a word in each category that begins with each of the letters of the key word, the player writing down the most words within a time limit being declared the winner.
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Mathematics. a type of mathematical object, as a set, group, or metric space, together with a set of mappings from such an object to other objects of the same type.
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Grammar. part of speech.
noun
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a class or group of things, people, etc, possessing some quality or qualities in common; a division in a system of classification
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metaphysics any one of the most basic classes into which objects and concepts can be analysed
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(in the philosophy of Aristotle) any one of ten most fundamental modes of being, such as quantity, quality, and substance
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(in the philosophy of Kant) one of twelve concepts required by human beings to interpret the empirical world
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any set of objects, concepts, or expressions distinguished from others within some logical or linguistic theory by the intelligibility of a specific set of statements concerning them See also category mistake
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Etymology
Origin of category
First recorded in 1580–90; from Late Latin catēgoria, from Greek katēgoría “accusation” (in logic, “predication”), from katēgoreîn “to accuse, affirm,” from kata- cata- + agoreúein “to speak before the agora 1 ” + -ia -y 3
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.
Authorities were able to track down 5,269 people in this category and switch their names to the “found” column.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 6, 2026
ACE awarded £12.23m in funding where an applicant name, project title or category contained the word "comedy" between 2010/11 to 2024/25, according to the government.
From BBC • Apr. 4, 2026
This categorization didn’t constitute a formal regulation; rather the agency was using its discretion not to go after compounders who used ingredients it deemed safe — those from the first category.
From Salon • Apr. 4, 2026
Ever since it emerged out of California’s skateboard shops and from the streets of Flatbush in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the 1980s, however, this category has exploded into a multibillion-dollar retail business.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
It is only from the 1640s that natural philosophy becomes a crucial category, largely owing to the influence of Descartes.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.