Semigroupoid

Last updated October 11, 2025

Group-like structures
	Total	Associative	Identity	Divisible	Commutative
Partial magma	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Semigroupoid	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Small category	Unneeded	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded
Groupoid	Unneeded	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded
Magma	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Quasigroup	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded
Unital magma	Required	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded
Loop	Required	Unneeded	Required	Required	Unneeded
Semigroup	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Monoid	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded
Group	Required	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded
Abelian group	Required	Required	Required	Required	Required

In mathematics, a semigroupoid (also called semicategory, naked category or precategory) is a partial algebra that satisfies the axioms for a small^[1]^[2]^[3] category, except possibly for the requirement that there be an identity at each object. Semigroupoids generalise semigroups in the same way that small categories generalise monoids and groupoids generalise groups. Semigroupoids have applications in the structural theory of semigroups.

Formally, a semigroupoid consists of:

a set of things called objects.
for every two objects A and B a set Mor(A,B) of things called morphisms from A to B. If f is in Mor(A,B), we write f : A → B.
for every three objects A, B and C a binary operation Mor(A,B) × Mor(B,C) → Mor(A,C) called composition of morphisms. The composition of f : A → B and g : B → C is written as g ∘ f or gf. (Some authors write it as fg.)

such that the following axiom holds:

(associativity) if f : A → B, g : B → C and h : C → D then h ∘ (g ∘ f) = (h ∘ g) ∘ f.

References

↑ Tilson, Bret (1987). "Categories as algebra: an essential ingredient in the theory of monoids". J. Pure Appl. Algebra. 48 (1–2): 83–198. doi: 10.1016/0022-4049(87)90108-3 ., Appendix B
↑ Rhodes, John; Steinberg, Ben (2009), The q-Theory of Finite Semigroups, Springer, p. 26, ISBN 9780387097817
↑ See e.g. Gomes, Gracinda M. S. (2002), Semigroups, Algorithms, Automata and Languages, World Scientific, p. 41, ISBN 9789812776884 , which requires the objects of a semigroupoid to form a set.

Mitchell, Barry (1972). "The Dominion of Isbell". Transactions of the American Mathematical Society. 167: 319–331. doi: 10.1090/S0002-9947-1972-0294441-0 . JSTOR 1996142.

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[1] Tilson, Bret (1987). "Categories as algebra: an essential ingredient in the theory of monoids". J. Pure Appl. Algebra. 48 (1–2): 83–198. doi: 10.1016/0022-4049(87)90108-3 ., Appendix B

[2] Rhodes, John; Steinberg, Ben (2009), The q-Theory of Finite Semigroups, Springer, p. 26, ISBN 9780387097817

[3] See e.g. Gomes, Gracinda M. S. (2002), Semigroups, Algorithms, Automata and Languages, World Scientific, p. 41, ISBN 9789812776884 , which requires the objects of a semigroupoid to form a set.

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