Classification is a process related to

categorization Categorization is the ability and activity of recognizing shared features or similarities between the elements of the experience of the world (such as Object (philosophy), objects, events, or ideas), organizing and classifying experience by a ...

, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes. It may also refer to:

Business, organizations, and economics

* Classification of customers, for marketing (as in

Master data management Master data management (MDM) is a technology-enabled discipline in which business and information technology work together to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency and accountability of the enterprise's official shared ...

) or for profitability (e.g. by

Activity-based costing Activity-based costing (ABC) is a costing method that identifies activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activity to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each. Therefore, this model assigns more ind ...

) *

Classified information Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

, as in legal or government documentation * Job classification, as in

job analysis Job analysis (also known as work analysis) is a family of procedures to identify the content of a job in terms of the activities it involves in addition to the attributes or requirements necessary to perform those activities. Job ''analysis'' pro ...

Standard Industrial Classification The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) was a system for classifying industries by a four-digit code as a method of standardizing industry classification for statistical purposes across agencies. Established in the United States in 1937, it ...

, economic activities

Mathematics

* Attribute-value system, a basic knowledge representation framework *

Classification theorem In mathematics, a classification theorem answers the classification problem "What are the objects of a given type, up to some equivalence?". It gives a non-redundant enumeration: each object is equivalent to exactly one class. A few issues relate ...

s in mathematics * Mathematical classification, grouping mathematical objects based on a property that all those objects share *

Statistical classification In statistics, classification is the problem of identifying which of a set of categories (sub-populations) an observation (or observations) belongs to. Examples are assigning a given email to the "spam" or "non-spam" class, and assigning a diagno ...

, identifying to which of a set of categories a new observation belongs, on the basis of a training set of data

Media

Classification (literature) Classification is a figure of speech linking a proper noun A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', '' Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, whi ...

, a figure of speech linking a proper noun to a common noun using ''the'' or other articles *

Decimal classification Decimal classification is a type of library classification. Examples include: * Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) * Korean Decimal Classification (KDC) * Nippon Decimal Classification (NDC) See also * Classification * Decimal * Decimal section n ...

, decimal classification systems *

Document classification Document classification or document categorization is a problem in library science, information science and computer science. The task is to assign a document to one or more classes or categories. This may be done "manually" (or "intellectually") ...

, a problem in library science, information science and computer science **

, sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular classes of people **

Library classification A library classification is a system of organization of knowledge by which library resources are arranged and ordered systematically. Library classifications are a notational system that represents the order of topics in the classification and al ...

, a system of coding, assorting and organizing library materials according to their subject *

Image classification Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the hum ...

in computer vision *

Motion picture rating system A motion picture content rating system classifies films based on their suitability for audiences due to their treatment of issues such as sex, violence, or substance abuse; their use of profanity; or other matters typically deemed unsuitable for c ...

, for film classification

Science

* Scientific classification (disambiguation) **

Biological classification In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

of organisms **

Chemical classification Chemical classification systems attempt to classify elements or compounds according to certain chemical functional or structural properties. Whereas the structural properties are largely intrinsic, functional properties and the derived classificat ...

Medical classification A medical classification is used to transform descriptions of medical diagnoses or procedures into standardized statistical code in a process known as clinical coding. Diagnosis classifications list diagnosis codes, which are used to track diseases ...

, the process of transforming descriptions of medical diagnoses and procedures into universal medical code numbers **

Taxonomic classification In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

, also known as classification of species ***

Cladistics Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...

, an approach using similarities

Organizations involved in classification

International Society for Knowledge Organization The International Society for Knowledge Organization, or ISKO, is a professional association for scholars of knowledge organization, knowledge structures, classification studies, and information organization and structure. Publications The Soc ...

Other uses

* An industrial

process A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management *Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...

such as

mechanical screening Mechanical screening, often just called screening, is the practice of taking Granule (geology), granulated or crushed ore material and separating it into multiple Ore grade, grades by particle size. This practice occurs in a variety of industries ...

for sorting materials by size, shape, and density, etc. *

Civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

classification, personnel grades in government *

Classification of swords The English language terminology used in the classification of swords is imprecise and has varied widely over time. There is no historical dictionary for the universal names, classification or terminology of swords; a sword was simply a double e ...

Classification of wine The classification of wine is based on various criteria including place of origin or appellation, vinification method and style, sweetness and vintage,J. Robinson (ed) ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 752 & 753 Oxford University ...

Classification society A ship classification society or ship classification organisation is a non-governmental organization that establishes and maintains technical standards for the construction and operation of ships and offshore structures. Classification societies ...

, a non-governmental organization that establishes and maintains technical standards for the construction and operation of ships and offshore structures *

Locomotive classification A class of locomotives is a group of locomotives built to a common design, typically for a single railroad or railway. Often members of a particular class had detail variations between individual examples, and these could lead to subclasses. Some ...

Product classification Product classification or product taxonomy is a type of economic taxonomy which organizes products for a variety of purposes. However, not only products can be referred to in a standardized way but also sales practices in form of the “Incoterms” ...

Security classification Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

, information to which access is restricted by law or regulation

External links

* {{Set index article Former disambiguation pages converted to set index articles