classification
the act of classifying.
the result of classifying or being classified.
one of the groups or classes into which things may be or have been classified.
Biology. the assignment of organisms to groups within a system of categories distinguished by structure, origin, etc. The usual series of categories is phylum (or, especially in botany, division), class, order, family, genus, species, and variety.
the category, as restricted, confidential, secret, or top secret, to which information, a document, etc., is assigned, as by a government or military agency, based on the degree of protection considered necessary to safeguard it from unauthorized use.
Library Science. any of various systems for arranging books and other materials, especially according to subject or format.
Origin of classification
1Other words from classification
- clas·si·fi·ca·to·ry [kluh-sif-i-kuh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee, klas-uh-fi- or, especially British, klas-uh-fi-key-tuh-ree], /kləˈsɪf ɪ kəˌtɔr i, -ˌtoʊr i, ˈklæs ə fɪ- or, especially British, ˌklæs ə fɪˈkeɪ tə ri/, adjective
- cla·si·fi·ca·to·ri·ly, adverb
- clas·si·fi·ca·tion·al, adjective
- mis·clas·si·fi·ca·tion, noun
- non·clas·si·fi·ca·tion, noun
- o·ver·clas·si·fi·ca·tion, noun
- pre·clas·si·fi·ca·tion, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use classification in a sentence
These classifications, however, barely begin to capture what we mean when we talk about creativity.
Social classifications ready-made are perhaps a great boon even for the people.
Juana | Honore de BalzacYou searched all the chronological records of the two classifications of telegrams that we have indicated?
Warren Commission (10 of 26): Hearings Vol. X (of 15) | The President's Commission on the Assassination of President KennedyIncrease in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient classifications.
Taboo and Genetics | Melvin Moses Knight, Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary BlanchardThese different classifications are all good, for the purposes of their own particular departments of knowledge or practice.
A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive | John Stuart Mill
These two classifications added to the three others, will in all make five genera for all things.
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 3 | Plotinos (Plotinus)
British Dictionary definitions for classification
/ (ˌklæsɪfɪˈkeɪʃən) /
systematic placement in categories
one of the divisions in a system of classifying
biology
the placing of animals and plants in a series of increasingly specialized groups because of similarities in structure, origin, molecular composition, etc, that indicate a common relationship. The major groups are domain or superkingdom, kingdom, phylum (in animals) or division (in plants), class, order, family, genus, and species
the study of the principles and practice of this process; taxonomy
government the designation of an item of information as being secret and not available to people outside a restricted group
Origin of classification
1Derived forms of classification
- classificational, adjective
- classificatory, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for classification
[ klăs′ə-fĭ-kā′shən ]
The systematic grouping of organisms according to the structural or evolutionary relationships among them. Organisms are normally classified by observed similarities in their body and cell structure or by evolutionary relationships based on the analysis of sequences of their DNA. See more at cladistics Linnean. See Table at taxonomy.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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