From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Category \Cat"e*go*ry\, n.; pl. Categories. [L. categoria, Gr.
   ?, fr. ? to accuse, affirm, predicate; ? down, against + ? to
   harrangue, assert, fr. ? assembly.]
   1. (Logic.) One of the highest classes to which the objects
      of knowledge or thought can be reduced, and by which they
      can be arranged in a system; an ultimate or undecomposable
      conception; a predicament.
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            The categories or predicaments -- the former a Greek
            word, the latter its literal translation in the
            Latin language -- were intended by Aristotle and his
            followers as an enumeration of all things capable of
            being named; an enumeration by the summa genera
            i.e., the most extensive classes into which things
            could be distributed.                 --J. S. Mill.
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   2. Class; also, state, condition, or predicament; as, we are
      both in the same category.
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            There is in modern literature a whole class of
            writers standing within the same category. --De
                                                  Quincey.
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