Meaning & use
reclass
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Meanings
verbtransitiveinformal
To move someone or something into a different category, grade or job class.
Grammar: Takes an object: the school will reclass the student.
Patterns
- reclass someone as something
- reclass something to something
The company decided to reclass the role as a managerial position.
Her records were reclassed after the audit.
The army reclassed him as medically unfit.
verbtransitiveinformal
To place a student in a different school year than the one they would normally be in, often to hold them back or move them up.
Grammar: Takes an object: they reclassed him at age seven.
Patterns
- reclass a student
- reclass someone to a lower grade
His parents asked the school to reclass him back one year.
Several athletes are reclassed to give them an extra year of growth.
The district may reclass a child who struggles with the curriculum.
Word forms
| third person singular | reclasses |
|---|---|
| past tense | reclassed |
| past participle | reclassed |
| -ing form | reclassing |
Common combinations
- reclass a student
- The principal agreed to reclass the student mid-year.
- reclass an employee
- HR plans to reclass the employee from hourly to salaried.
- reclass as exempt
- They tried to reclass the job as exempt.
- be reclassed
- Several expenses were reclassed in the budget.
- reclass a grade
- Parents sometimes ask to reclass a grade for sport.
Synonyms and how they differ
- reclassify
- Reclassify is the standard full form and works in any register, while reclass sounds like office or school shorthand.
- recategorize
- Recategorize is a neutral choice for ideas or records, but it is longer and less used for school years.
- regrade
- Regrade fits grades or marks and is not normally used for job categories.
- transfer
- Transfer is about moving a person elsewhere and does not imply a new classification.
Word family
- reclassify verb
- to put in a new class
- reclassification noun
- the act of putting in a new class
- class noun
- a group or category
- classification noun
- the sorting of things into groups
Commonly confused: reclass or reclaim?
reclass vs reclaim
Reclaim means to get something back or reuse it. It has nothing to do with moving to a new category.
Practice
The accounting team had to ____ several costs from operating expenses to capital expenses.
Choose one answer.
Reclass means to move into a different category. Reclaim, recall and recess do not mean moving items between categories.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “reclass”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.