Pokémon category

In a Pokémon's Pokédex entry, the **category** (Japanese: **分類** *classification*) is a name which identifies the Pokémon based on one of its defining biological characteristics. Most often, the defining traits are part of the Pokémon’s physiology, special abilities, or behavior. It was previously also known as **species**.

Because categories reference real-world animals, they may be viewed as metatextual clues about the inspiration for Pokémon, instead of in-universe data.

Before Generation III, the category was shown by just seeing the Pokémon, rather than upon catching it.

In Pokémon games prior to Generation III, the character limit for a category name was ten characters. This has since increased from Generation III onwards, with the longest English category name being observed to be thirteen characters long. In other languages, the longest category name is Pachirisu's German category "Elektrohörnchen" which is 15 characters long. This includes spaces but does not include "Pokémon".

## Trivia

* Several Pokémon have had their categories altered between generations. This is primarily due to character limitations in earlier Pokémon games. Squirtle, as an example, was originally the "<sc>TinyTurtle</sc> Pokémon". It was later listed as the "<sc>Tiny Turtle</sc> Pokémon".
* The categories present in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen are cut off in early English releases of the games, most specifically those made up of more than one word with a space in between. This causes Pokémon like Pidgey to be listed as "Tiny Pokémon" rather than "Tiny Bird Pokémon". Internal game data lists the category the same as it appears in Template:Game2 and other games, indicating a glitch in the Pokédex where a blank space is confused for the terminating byte for the name. This was addressed in later releases of the game.
* Hoopa is the only Pokémon with multiple categories.
* The previous term, "species", should not be confused with a Pokémon species, since several different Pokémon can be identified by the same category in the Pokédex, no matter how distantly related. This term should also not be confused with the real world definition of species.
* Eight species of Pokémon are known as the Dragon Pokémon, making it the category with the most Pokémon species.
* Wimpod and Golisopod's categories in Japanese comprise a pun: the kana (そうこうポケモン *soukou Pokémon*) can be interpreted as either 倉皇 (bustle or hurry) or 装甲 (armored).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky
2. ↑ In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
3. ↑ In Pokédex 3D Pro
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 On the official Pokémon Black and White site
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 On the official Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire site
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 On the official Pokémon Sun and Moon site
7. ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 On the Pokémon.com Pokédex
8. ↑ In Camp Pokémon
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 On the official Pokémon Black and White 2 site
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 On the official Pokémon X and Y site
11. ↑ Pokémon.com Pokédex (archive)
12. ↑ Official Nintendo Hong Kong Pokémon Sun and Moon site
13. ↑ Official Nintendo Hong Kong Pokémon Sun and Moon site
14. ↑ Pokémon.com Pokédex (Dutch; archive)
15. ↑ Pokémon.com Pokédex (French; archive)
16. ↑ Pokémon.com Pokédex (German; archive)
17. ↑ Pokémon.com Pokédex (Italian; archive)
18. ↑ Pokémon Korea Pokédex (Korean)
19. ↑ Pokémon.com Pokédex (Brazillian Portuguese; 2013 archive)
20. ↑ Pokémon.com Pokédex (Brazillian Portuguese; 2016 archive)
21. ↑ https://www.nintendo.ru/-/Nintendo-3DS/Pokemon-Sun-1092368.html#Pok\_mon
22. ↑ Pokémon.com Pokédex (Spanish; archive)

Template:Pokelist

de:Kategorie
es:Categoría
fr:Liste des Pokémon par catégorie d'espèce
it:Categoria
ja:ぶんるい一覧
zh:分类