Cāt'e-go-ry, n.
(50), n. [Lat. categoria, Gr. κατηγορία, from κατηγορεῖν, to accuse, affirm, predicate, from κατά, down, against, and ἀγορεύειν, to harangue, assert, from ἀγορά, assembly.]
Sense 1. (Logic.) 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; 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.
Aristotle made ten categories, viz., substance, quantity, quality, relation, action, passion, time, place, situation, and habit.
Sense 2. State, condition, or predicament; as, we are both in the same category.
Synonyms—Predicament; condition; situation.—CATEGORY, PREDICAMENT. Category and predicament are both popularly used to express the idea of condition or situation, but with this difference, that predicament supposes it to be a bad or unfortunate one. Hence to say, “I am in the same category with you,” is not of necessity to say, “I am in the same predicament.”