reclassify

Other forms: reclassified; reclassifying

When you reclassify something, you change its category. A bookseller might reclassify a memoir as "fiction" after it's revealed that the author invented most of the people and events in it.

Your boss where you work part-time may reclassify you as a full-time worker in the summer, when you have more time for your job. And your school might consider cheerleading to be a club, while some others have decided to reclassify it as a sport. In both cases, something has changed categories. The verb reclassify adds the "again" prefix re- to classify, which means "put into a class or group."

Definitions of reclassify

1. verb

   classify anew, change the previous classification
   “The zoologists had to reclassify the mollusks after they found new species”

   type of:

   assort, class, classify, separate, sort, sort out

   arrange or order by classes or categories