categorization

Etymology

It is a noun of action from English categorize, perhaps influenced by French catégorisation (1845).^[2] The verb was formed in 1705 from category and -ize;^[3][2][4] the noun goes back through French catégorie and Late Latin categoria to Ancient Greek κατηγορία (katēgoría, “accusation, predication”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act or process of placing things in a list or catalogue: by 1866 in Etymonline.^[2] The OED's first record, for the action of categorizing or classification, is from 1886, in the Spectator.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its general sense of sorting things into classes.^[3][4] The Historical Thesaurus files it both under assigning things to a category and under putting things in order.^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds the resulting state, being categorized.^[4]

Timeline

• 1866 – the act of placing things in a list or classes.^[2] The OED's first record is from 1886.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or process of sorting things into categories; classification: The categorization of the samples took several weeks.^[4][3]
2. The state of being categorized.^[4]

Word family

• decategorization
• subcategorization

Related words

• categorize
• category

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)