Word.ws English Dictionary

catch-all

catch-all noun: any place or repository where things are placed indiscriminately or without careful thought. Also the ellipsis of catch-all term.

Noun

catch-all (plural catch-alls)

  1. Any place or repository where things are placed indiscriminately or without careful thought.
    • If you're not careful, the entrance table will quickly become a catch-all for things that come in the door.
    • The category was a catch-all for items that were not filed elsewhere.

Also used as

catch-all is also the ellipsis of catch-all term.

Forms of catch-all

pluralcatch-alls
alternative formcatchall

Origin of catch-all

From catch + -all.

Words formed from catch-all

Phrases with catch-all

Questions about catch-all

What does catch-all mean?
Catch-all means any place or repository where things are placed indiscriminately or without careful thought.
What part of speech is catch-all?
Catch-all is a noun.
What is the plural of catch-all?
The plural of catch-all is catch-alls.

Words near catch-all in the dictionary

  1. catch'd
  2. catch-'em-alive-O
  3. catch-'em-alive-Os
  4. catch-22
  5. catch-22s
  6. catch-all
  7. catch-all parties
  8. catch-all party
  9. catch-all phrase
  10. catch-all term
  11. catch-all word

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catch-all (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “catch-all.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catch-all. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.