n., pl., -ries.
- A specifically defined division in a system of classification; a class.
- A general class of ideas, terms, or things that mark divisions or coordinations within a conceptual scheme, especially:
- Aristotle's modes of objective being, such as quality, quantity, or relation, that are inherent in everything.
- Kant's modes of subjective understanding, such as singularity, universality, or particularity, that organize perceptions into knowledge.
- A basic logical type of philosophical conception in post-Kantian philosophy.
- Linguistics.
- A classificatory structural unit or property of a language, such as a part of speech, verb phrase, or object.
- A specific grammatical defining property of a linguistic unit or class, such as number or gender in the noun and tense or voice in the verb.
[French catégorie, from Old French, from Late Latin catēgoria, class of predicables, from Greek katēgoriā, accusation, charge, from katēgorein, to accuse, predicate : kat-, kata-, down, against; see cata- + agoreuein, ēgor-, to speak in public (from agorā, marketplace, assembly).]
