Standard Lemma guide

classification

noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: /ˌklæsɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -eɪʃən
  • CMU ARPABET: K L AE2 S AH0 F AH0 K EY1 SH AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The act of forming into a class or classes; a distribution into groups, as classes, orders, families, etc., according to some common relations or attributes.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • Near-synonyms: categorization, classifying, categorizing, typing, sorting
  • 1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 69 (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN I’m using mathesis — a universal science of measurement and order ... And there is also taxinomia a principle of 'classification' and ordered tabulation. Knowledge replaced universal resemblance with finite differences. History was arrested and turned into tables ... Western reason had entered the age of judgement.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: categorization, classifying, categorizing, typing, sorting

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

the act of distributing things into classes or categories of the same type

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: categorization, categorisation, compartmentalization, compartmentalisation, assortment

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: grouping

Narrower terms: indexing, reclassification, relegation, stratification, taxonomy, typology

3

noun

Meaning 3

restriction imposed by the government on documents or weapons that are available only to certain authorized people

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: declassification

Broader terms: restriction, confinement

4

noun

Meaning 4

the basic cognitive process of arranging into classes or categories

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: categorization, categorisation, sorting

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: basic cognitive process

Narrower terms: coordination, appraisal, assessment, attribution, ascription, cross-classification, cross-division, subsumption

5

noun

Meaning 5

a group of people or things arranged by class or category

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: categorization, categorisation

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: arrangement

Narrower terms: dichotomy, duality, trichotomy

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kelh1-der. Proto-Italic *klāssis Latin classislbor. French classe Proto-Indo-European *dheh1-der. Proto-Italic *θakos Proto-Italic *-fakos Latin -ficus Proto-Indo-European *-h2 Proto-Indo-European *-éh2 Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh2yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h2tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin -ficōder. French -ifier French classifier Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin -ātiōlbor. Old French -ation Middle French -ation French -ation French classificationbor. English classification Borrowed from French classification.

Across languages

Translations

73 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: klassifikasie — act of forming into classes
  • Arabic: تَصْنِيف (taṣnīf) — act of forming into classes
  • Azerbaijani: təsnifat — act of forming into classes
  • Belarusian: класіфіка́цыя (klasifikácyja) — act of forming into classes
  • Belarusian: клясыфіка́цыя (kljasyfikácyja) — act of forming into classes
  • Bulgarian: класифика́ция (klasifikácija) — act of forming into classes
  • Catalan: classificació — act of forming into classes
  • Chinese Mandarin: 分類 /分类 (fēnlèi) — act of forming into classes
  • Czech: klasifikace — act of forming into classes
  • Dutch: classificatie — act of forming into classes
  • Esperanto: klasado — act of forming into classes
  • Extremaduran: crasificación — act of forming into classes
  • Finnish: luokittelu — act of forming into classes
  • French: classification — act of forming into classes
  • Galician: clasificación — act of forming into classes
  • Georgian: კლასიფიკაცია (ḳlasipiḳacia) — act of forming into classes
  • German: Klassifikation — act of forming into classes
  • German: Klassifizierung — act of forming into classes
  • Greek: ταξινόμηση (taxinómisi) — act of forming into classes
  • Greek: κατάταξη (katátaxi) — act of forming into classes
  • Hungarian: osztályozás — act of forming into classes
  • Hungarian: besorolás — act of forming into classes
  • Hungarian: beosztás — act of forming into classes
  • Hungarian: minősítés — act of forming into classes
  • Hungarian: meghatározás — act of forming into classes
  • Hungarian: klasszifikáció — act of forming into classes
  • Indonesian: klasifikasi — act of forming into classes
  • Irish: aicmiú — act of forming into classes
  • Italian: classificazione — act of forming into classes
  • Japanese: 分類 (bunrui) — act of forming into classes
  • Kashmiri: پرٛاگ (prāg) — act of forming into classes
  • Kashmiri: وَرگہٕ بَنٛدی (vargụ bandī) — act of forming into classes
  • Kazakh: жіктеме (jıkteme) — act of forming into classes
  • Kazakh: сыныптама (synyptama) — act of forming into classes
  • Korean: 분류 (bullyu) — act of forming into classes
  • Latin: classificatio — act of forming into classes
  • Latin: descriptio — act of forming into classes
  • Latvian: klasifikācija — act of forming into classes
  • Lithuanian: klasifikacija — act of forming into classes
  • Macedonian: класификација (klasifikacija) — act of forming into classes
  • Malay: pengelasan — act of forming into classes
  • Malayalam: വർഗ്ഗീകരണം (vaṟggīkaraṇaṁ) — act of forming into classes
  • Māori: whakarōpūtanga — act of forming into classes
  • Māori: kōmakahanga — act of forming into classes
  • Marathi: वर्गीकरण (vargīkraṇ) — act of forming into classes
  • Norwegian Bokmål: klassifikasjon — act of forming into classes
  • Norwegian Bokmål: inndeling — act of forming into classes
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: klassifikasjon — act of forming into classes
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: inndeling — act of forming into classes
  • Persian: ردهبندی (rade-bandi) — act of forming into classes
  • Polish: klasyfikacja — act of forming into classes
  • Portuguese: classificação — act of forming into classes
  • Punjabi: ਵਰਗੀਕਰਨ (vargīkaran) — act of forming into classes
  • Romanian: clasificare — act of forming into classes
  • Romanian: clasificație — act of forming into classes
  • Russian: классифика́ция (klassifikácija) — act of forming into classes
  • Russian: классифици́рование (klassificírovanije) — act of forming into classes
  • Serbo-Croatian: класификација — act of forming into classes
  • Serbo-Croatian: разредба — act of forming into classes
  • Serbo-Croatian: klasifikacija — act of forming into classes
  • Serbo-Croatian: razredba — act of forming into classes
  • Sikkimese: ཁོངས་རྷོགས (khongs rhogs) — act of forming into classes
  • Slovak: klasifikácia — act of forming into classes
  • Slovene: klasifikacija — act of forming into classes
  • Spanish: clasificación — act of forming into classes
  • Swahili: uainishaji — act of forming into classes
  • Swedish: klassifikation — act of forming into classes
  • Swedish: klassificering — act of forming into classes
  • Tagalog: palaurian — act of forming into classes
  • Turkish: sınıflandırma — act of forming into classes
  • Ukrainian: класифіка́ція (klasyfikácija) — act of forming into classes
  • Vietnamese: sự phân loại — act of forming into classes
  • Welsh: dosbarthiad — act of forming into classes
Real reading context

classification in complete knowledge articles