catchall

noun

catch·​all ˈkach-ˌȯl 

ˈkech-

variants or catch-all

plural catchalls or catch-alls

: something designed or serving to catch, hold, account for, or include miscellaneous items or a wide variety of things

The secret weapon for battling kitchen clutter in this case is a simple tray. … The trays act as catch-alls or places to neatly store anything that gets left out.

—Marie Rossiter

After a period of rapidly rising consumer prices, "inflation" is a catchall for economic woes.

—Edward Lotterman

—often used before another noun

a catchall bin

… long COVID, the catchall term for the sometimes debilitating health problems that can last for months or years after even a mild case of COVID-19.

—Lauran Neergaard

Examples of catchall in a Sentence

They used the drawer as a catchall for kitchen items.

“The arts” is a catchall for a variety of activities from painting to music.

Recent Examples on the Web

Sometimes, however, the sunroom can become a catchall. —Quincy Bulin, Southern Living, 9 June 2025

The Soviet Union covered its mistake by renaming the spacecraft: instead of becoming one of the Venera missions to Venus, the hapless spacecraft was designed Kosmos, the USSR’s catchall for its spacecraft in Earth orbit. —Kiona N. Smith, Forbes.com, 7 May 2025

Call it the fix for runaway production — that is, the catchall term for movie and TV projects intended for U.S. release that are filmed outside the country — that nobody in Hollywood wants. —Chris Lee, Vulture, 5 May 2025

The ensemble isn’t quite the catchall for the sociopolitical backdrop of contemporary Western Europe, post the migrant and refugee crises of the 2010s. —Ritesh Mehta, IndieWire, 15 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1827, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for catchall

• aldol
• armhole
• atoll
• awol
• backhaul
• banal
• baseball
• befall
• cabal
• cecal
• centrale
• downfall

Kids Definition

catchall

noun

catch·​all ˈkach-ˌȯl 

ˈkech-

: something to hold a variety of odds and ends