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catalog Syllabification: cat·a·log
Pronunciation: /ˈkadlˌôɡ/
(also catalogue)

Definition of catalog in English:

noun

1A complete list of items, typically one in alphabetical or other systematic order, in particular.
Example sentences
  • The catalogue offered profiles of some social justice NGOs from around the world who had been using Interdoc in the 1980s.
  • This list of the guilty implicated in the events at Pitelinskii district offered a virtual catalogue of recognizable and acceptable enemies of the Soviet state.
1.1A list of all the books or resources in a library.
Example sentences
  • Library users can now also access the library catalogue and renew their books on line.
  • Specimen data in the museums are often maintained in a form of catalogs similar to bibliographic catalogues in the libraries.
  • We are hoping to set up a consortium of institute libraries with a standardised catalogue and a strong policy on resource sharing.
1.2A publication containing details and often photographs of items for sale, especially one produced by a mail-order company.
Example sentences
  • Americans buy one-third of their bulbs, based on value of sales, through mail-order catalogues.
  • It was founded in 1990 as a mail-order catalog, the sales from which still account for part of its $3 million in revenues.
  • Most of these good-looking, solid and sculptural vanity units are not cheap, although the high street and mail-order catalogues are catching up with the trend.
Synonyms
1.3A descriptive list of works of art in an exhibition or collection giving detailed comments and explanations.
Example sentences
  • Several contributors to the exhibition's catalogue commented on the swing in art-world attention.
  • In keeping with this belief, he never left details such as the design of exhibition announcements and catalogues to the graphic designers usually hired by galleries and museums.
  • This collection is the catalogue of an exhibition held at Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Toronto, Victoria and Winnipeg.
Synonyms
1.4US A list of courses offered by a university or college.
Example sentences
  • Both course catalogs and class schedules were obtained from each college in the sample.
  • In other business, the senate approved changes to the next university catalog.
  • The mission of the college is stated as follows in its course catalogue and faculty handbook.
1.5 [in singular] A series of unfortunate or bad things: his life was a catalog of dismal failures
More example sentences
  • My catalogue of unpleasant happenings continued.
  • There was just a series, a catalogue of disasters, culminating in the Hollywood cameraman's French sophisticated camera, falling over on the spot.

verb (catalogs, cataloged, cataloging; also catalogues, catalogued, cataloguing)

[with object] Back to top  
1Make a systematic list of (items of the same type).
Example sentences
  • Before that can be done well, I think, the archives of Pius XII's pontificate will probably have to be fully catalogued and opened.
  • In the second phase, some 60,000 cards that form core of the collection will be catalogued and made available online.
  • A movie buff, Johnson owns 8,000 films, all of which are catalogued and indexed in six file cabinets in his house.
Synonyms
classify, categorize, systematize, index, list, archive, make an inventory of, inventory, record, itemize
1.1Enter (an item) in a systematic list: the picture was withdrawn before being cataloged
More example sentences
  • A record 40 juvenile colts and geldings purchased from sales from around the world have been cataloged for the event that will be conducted by Keeneland Association.
  • A total of 198 yearlings have been cataloged for the three sessions of the auction, which produced record results last year.
1.2List (similar situations, qualities, or events) in succession: the report catalogs dangerous work practices in the company
More example sentences
  • One of the authors of the report said that by cataloguing the deaths his team hoped to quantify the casualties that were missed or ignored in official reports.
  • The report catalogued the increase of both kinds of appointments, the exploitation of faculty in such positions, and the accelerating negative effects of these practices on higher education.
  • Bill Brandt was born in 1904 and is seen as one of the most successful photographers in cataloguing the changes in the landscape and society of Great Britain in the last century.

Origin

Late Middle English: via Old French from late Latin catalogus, from Greek katalogos, from katalegein 'pick out or enroll'.

Derivatives

cataloger

1
(also cataloguer) noun
Example sentences
  • We're not that kind of music obsessive. We're not cataloguers, we're cherry-pickers.
  • He was a visual researcher, a cataloguer and collagist, producing densely packed, allusively wired images based on fragmentation and collision.
  • It would seem that the hapless cataloguer (with whose plight all library cataloguers will no doubt sympathize) must have tried to find the source of the music in question by consulting the available reference books.

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Word of the day haughty
Pronunciation: ˈhɔːti
adjective
arrogantly superior and disdainful
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