[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/categorical.html)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [dictionaries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/) / [The school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/) / categorical

[← C](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/C/)

# categorical

«categorical» in Mova's school dictionary: **Very clear and certain, with no doubt at all («a…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (categorical; more categorical)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Very clear and certain, with no doubt at all («a categorical no»). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/categorical/#m1)

2) (maths, formal) To do with categories or groups; categorical data is sorted into groups, not measured with numbers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/categorical/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday life and the news it describes a firm, absolute answer or promise — «a categorical denial». In school maths and statistics, categorical data means things like favourite colour or type of pet, which go into a tally chart, bar chart or pie chart rather than being measured. It tells the reader there is no maybe. Adverb: «categorically».

### examples

- The head teacher gave a categorical no to phones in class. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/categorical/#x1)
- The minister issued a categorical denial of the story. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/categorical/#x2)
- Favourite fruit is categorical data, but height is not. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/categorical/#x3)
- We sorted the categorical data into a bar chart. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/categorical/#x4)
- I can say with categorical certainty that I locked the door. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/categorical/#x5)
- Dad was categorical: no screens after eight. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/categorical/#x6)
- Eye colour is an example of categorical data. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/categorical/#x7)

### note

Adjective; adverb «categorically» («I categorically refuse»). In maths, categorical data (groups, names) is different from numerical data (measurements, counts); you can count how many are in each group but you cannot find the mean of colours.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «categorical» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/categorical/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.