Meaning & use

categorize

verb·Academic

To arrange or classify things into groups based on shared characteristics.

See it in a sentence

The librarian categorized the new books by genre before shelving them.

Scientists categorize animals according to their physical traits and evolutionary history.

A note on using this word

British English commonly spells this "categorise," while American English uses "categorize."

Words with a similar meaning

classifysort

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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