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What is the difference between category and class?

category | class |

Class is a synonym of category.



In mathematics terms the difference between category and class

is that category is a collection of objects, together with a transitively closed collection of composable arrows between them, such that every object has an identity arrow, and such that arrow composition is associative while class is a collection of sets definable by a shared property.

As nouns the difference between category and class

is that category is a group, often named or numbered, to which items are assigned based on similarity or defined criteria while class is a group, collection, category or set sharing characteristics or attributes.

As a verb class is

to assign to a class; to classify.

As an adjective class is

great; fabulous.

category

Noun

(categories)
  • A group, often named or numbered, to which items are assigned based on similarity or defined criteria.
  • *
  • The traditional way of describing the similarities and differences between constituents is to say that they belong to categories'' of various types. Thus, words like ''boy'', ''girl'', ''man'', ''woman'', etc. are traditionally said to belong to the category''' of Nouns, whereas words like ''a'', ''the'', ''this'', and ''that'' are traditionally said to belong to the ' category of Determiners.
    This steep and dangerous climb belongs to the most difficult category .
    I wouldn't put this book in the same category as the author's first novel.
  • (mathematics) A collection of objects, together with a transitively closed collection of composable arrows between them, such that every object has an identity arrow, and such that arrow composition is associative.
  • One well-known category has sets as objects and functions as arrows.
    Just as a monoid consists of an underlying set with a binary operation "on top of it" which is closed, associative and with an identity, a category consists of an underlying digraph with an arrow composition operation "on top of it" which is transitively closed, associative, and with an identity at each object. In fact, a category's composition operation, when restricted to a single one of its objects, turns that object's set of arrows (which would all be loops) into a monoid.

    Synonyms

    * (group to which items are assigned) class, family, genus, group, kingdom, order, phylum, race, tribe, type * See also

    Derived terms

    * category mistake * category theory * conceptual category * perceptual category * subcategory * supercategory

    class

    English

    (wikipedia class)

    Noun

  • (countable) A group, collection, category or set sharing characteristics or attributes.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Saj Chowdhury, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Wolverhampton 1-2 Newcastle , passage=The Magpies are unbeaten and enjoying their best run since 1994, although few would have thought the class of 2011 would come close to emulating their ancestors.}}
  • (countable) A social grouping, based on job, wealth, etc. In Britain, society is commonly split into three main classes; upper class, middle class and working class.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
  • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three – what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.}}
  • (uncountable) The division of society into classes.
  • (uncountable) Admirable behavior; elegance.
  • (countable, and, uncountable) A group of students in a regularly scheduled meeting with a teacher.
  • A series of classes covering a single subject.
  • (countable) A group of students who commenced or completed their education during a particular year. A school class.
  • (countable) A category of seats in an airplane, train or other means of mass transportation.
  • (biology, taxonomy, countable) A rank in the classification of organisms, below phylum and above order; a taxon of that rank.
  • Best of its kind.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • (mathematics) A collection of sets definable by a shared property.
  • (military) A group of people subject to be conscripted in the same military draft, or more narrowly those persons actually conscripted in a particular draft.
  • (programming, object-oriented) A set of objects having the same behavior (but typically differing in state), or a template defining such a set.
  • One of the sections into which a Methodist church or congregation is divided, supervised by a class leader .
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * business class * character class * class action * class clown * class diagram * class reunion * class struggle * economy class * equivalence class * first class * form class * middle class * noun class * pitch class * professional class * school class * second class * social class * spectral class * super class * third class * touch of class * upper class * working class * abstract class * anonymous/local class * base class * class diagram * convenience class * factory class * final class * inner class * outer class * static class * subclass * wrapper class

    Verb

  • To assign to a class; to classify.
  • * , title=The Mirror and the Lamp
  • , chapter=2 citation , passage=She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.}}
  • To be grouped or classed.
  • — Tatham.
  • To divide into classes, as students; to form into, or place in, a class or classes.
  • Derived terms

    (Derived terms) * outclass * subclass

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (Irish, British, slang) great; fabulous
  • Statistics

    *