n.
 (pl. categories)
  - a class or division of people or things having particular shared characteristics.
- Philosophy  each of a possibly exhaustive set of classes among which all things might be distributed. ▸each of the a priori conceptions applied by the mind to sense impressions. 
Derivative
  
  Etymology
  ME: from Fr. catégorie or late L. categoria, from Gk katēgoria ‘statement, accusation’, from katēgoros ‘accuser’.