CATEGORY

category

(noun) a general concept that marks divisions or coordinations in a conceptual scheme

class, category, family

(noun) a collection of things sharing a common attribute; “there are two classes of detergents”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

category (plural categories)

A group, often named or numbered, to which items are assigned based on similarity or defined criteria.

(mathematics) A collection of objects, together with a transitively closed collection of composable arrows between them, such that every object has an identity arrow, and such that arrow composition is associative.

Synonyms

• (group to which items are assigned): class, family, genus, group, kingdom, order, phylum, race, tribe, type

• See also class

Hyponyms

• conceptual category

• Eilenberg-Moore category

• Kleisli category

• macrocategory

• microcategory

• monoid

• partially ordered set

• perceptual category

• subcategory

• supercategory

Source: Wiktionary

Cat"e*go*ry, n.; pl. Categories Etym: [L. categoria, Gr.

1. (Logic.)

Definition: One of the highest classes to which the objects of knowledge or thought can be reduced, and by which they can be arranged in a system; an ultimate or undecomposable conception; a predicament. The categories or predicaments -- the former a Greek word, the latter its literal translation in the Latin language -- were intended by Aristotle and his followers as an enumeration of all things capable of being named; an enumeration by the summa genera i.e., the most extensive classes into which things could be distributed. J. S. Mill.

2. Class; also, state, condition, or predicament; as, we are both in the same category. There is in modern literature a whole class of writers standing within the same category. De Quincey.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition