Library / English Dictionary

ASSORTMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of distributing things into classes or categories of the same type

Synonyms:

assortment; categorisation; categorization; classification; compartmentalisation; compartmentalization

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("assortment" is a kind of...):

grouping (the activity of putting things together in groups)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assortment"):

indexing (the act of classifying and providing an index in order to make items easier to retrieve)

reclassification (classifying something again (usually in a new category))

relegation (the act of assigning (someone or something) to a particular class or category)

stratification (the act or process or arranging persons into classes or social strata)

taxonomy (practice of classifying plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships)

typology (classification according to general type)

Derivation:

assort (arrange or order by classes or categories)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A collection containing a variety of sorts of things

Example:

a veritable smorgasbord of religions

Synonyms:

assortment; miscellanea; miscellany; mixed bag; mixture; motley; potpourri; salmagundi; smorgasbord; variety

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("assortment" is a kind of...):

accumulation; aggregation; assemblage; collection (several things grouped together or considered as a whole)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "assortment"):

grab bag (an assortment of miscellaneous items)

witch's brew; witches' brew; witches' broth (a fearsome mixture)

range (a variety of different things or activities)

selection (an assortment of things from which a choice can be made)

farrago; gallimaufry; hodgepodge; hotchpotch; melange; mingle-mangle; mishmash; oddments; odds and ends; omnium-gatherum; ragbag (a motley assortment of things)

alphabet soup (a confusing assortment)

sampler (an assortment of various samples)

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