categorisation

categorisation — noun

1. the work, or the result, of sorting people, ideas, or objects into named groups

1.nounC1
Definition

the work, or the result, of sorting people, ideas, or objects into named groups so that everything in the same group shares some clear feature — such as size, type, age, or risk.

Example

The categorisation of films by age suitability protects younger viewers from disturbing content.

categorisation of + noun + by + criterion

Christopher questioned the hospital's categorisation of his condition as low-priority.

categorisation + as + label

Common collocations
  • categorisation system
  • categorisation scheme
  • categorisation of + noun
  • broad categorisation
  • rigid categorisation
  • automatic categorisation
  • risk categorisation
Synonyms
  • classification

    very close in meaning; preferred in scientific, legal, and library contexts

  • grouping

    more everyday; emphasises the resulting groups rather than the process

  • sorting

    informal; often used for physical objects or simple data

  • taxonomy

    formal and technical; a complete, ordered system of categories, especially in biology

Antonyms
  • lumping

    informal; treating everything as one undifferentiated group

  • individualisation

    formal; treating each case on its own rather than fitting it into a group

Grammar Patterns

categorisation of + noun

the categorisation by + criterion

system / scheme of categorisation

Usage Note

Frequently followed by 'of + the items being grouped' and 'by/according to + the criterion used' (categorisation of patients by age; categorisation of risks according to severity). Common in academic, legal, and bureaucratic writing; in everyday speech 'sorting' or 'grouping' usually replaces it. The American spelling is 'categorization' with a 'z' — the noun is identical in meaning, only the spelling differs.

Common Mistakes

Linh did a quick categorisation of her old emails this morning.
Linh quickly sorted through her old emails this morning.
'categorisation' is formal and abstract; for everyday tidying-up, 'sort' or 'sort through' sounds far more natural.
The categorisation that the species is endangered surprised the team.
The classification of the species as endangered surprised the team.
when the focus is the official label assigned (especially in science or law), 'classification' is the standard term.

Word family

  • category
    nounB1
  • categorise
    verbB2
  • categorical
    adjectiveC1
  • categorically
    adverbC1
  • categorization
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These four describe the same basic action — putting things into named sets — but they differ in formality and field. 'Categorisation' is general and abstract: it works for almost any domain, from films to medical risks, and stresses the act of deciding which group something belongs to. 'Classification' overlaps heavily but is the preferred word in science, law, and libraries, where the resulting label has formal weight ('classification of a species as endangered'). 'Grouping' is the most everyday term and points more at the outcome than the process; you can do it quickly with a stack of papers and not feel pretentious. 'Taxonomy' is the most technical of the four — a complete, hierarchical, often historic system, most familiar from biology (kingdom, phylum, class…). Compare: Linh worked on the categorisation of patients by symptom, which the hospital later turned into an official classification used in its grouping of beds; behind it sat a full medical taxonomy.

categorisation ↗classification ↗groupingtaxonomy

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • risk categorisation
  • automatic categorisation
  • system of categorisation
  • categorisation and classification

Prepositions

  • categorisation of
  • categorisation by
  • categorisation as
  • categorisation into

Etymology

GreekLate LatinFrenchEnglish

'Categorisation' is built from the verb 'categorise', which itself comes from the noun 'category'. 'Category' entered English in the 1500s through Late Latin 'categoria', borrowed from Greek 'katēgoria', meaning 'a charge, an accusation, an assertion'. Aristotle reused the Greek word as a philosophical term for the basic kinds into which any thing could be assigned, and that sense — the named bin you put something in — passed into Latin and onwards. The verb 'categorise' was formed in English in the 1700s, and the noun 'categorisation', referring to the activity itself, only became common in the 1800s.