WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Cat"e*go*ry
Part of Speech : n.;
Etymology : [L. categoria, Gr.
Definition : 1. (Logic.)

Defn: 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.

pl. Categories
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913