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 →

2) (maths, formal) To do with categories or groups; categorical data is sorted into groups, not measured with numbers. tree →

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 →
• The minister issued a categorical denial of the story. tree →
• Favourite fruit is categorical data, but height is not. tree →
• We sorted the categorical data into a bar chart. tree →
• I can say with categorical certainty that I locked the door. tree →
• Dad was categorical: no screens after eight. tree →
• Eye colour is an example of categorical data. tree →

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, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.