A dictionary organized by category?

If it is arranged by category that would be an encyclopedia

33, that's a q that has long eluded me also. Finally concluded that it might be a very difficult if not impossible undertaking

However you might provide an example of what you contemplate

In what language?
I have seen and also recommended a dectionary which not has words but pictures in categories.
You look up vegetables and then you will get a lot of pictures with the words below.
http://www.bokus.com/bok/9789113025490/engelsk-bildordbok-svenskengelsk/
This one in dividedin about 80 different categories under 17 different titles like art and architekture.. Food and cooking...transport and machines.
Lots of knowledge and a wonderful picturebook

There is a sort of compromise of this concept in English. That is an encyclopedic dictionary. I owned one as recently as the 1970s, although i have not looked for one since then. At Amazon, they show Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language as having been published in 1996. The entries are organized alphabetically, and are based on common nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. The entries, however, go into greater depth than do the entries of standard dictionaries. To find shipmate, you need to look under ship. You will probably get far more information on the word ship and its variants than you ever wanted.

I'm thinking of something along the lines of a taxonomy or ontology, if you are familiar with either of those terms.
If not, imagine the book to perhaps be divided, twofold, into concrete and abstract categories. And if I were look up something such as a spoon, I would find it under something like these category headings: spoon/utensils/cookware/tools/concrete.
Or a second example, if we were to use something like a dog, we might get: dog/mammal/animal/life/concrete.
Agreed, that it would be a very ambitious project, but I feel like, at least by now, someone or ones would have published a book like this. And it doesn't necessarily need to be exhaustive in any sense. It just needs to have some common ideas categorized in an easy, accessible way.

The language I'm am looking for it to be in is English.

Have you done a google on thematic dictionaries? There are any number of hits, and maybe one of them will suit your need.

I had one of those once. Let me see if I can locate it.

Here's one, tho' it's not the one I spoke of.

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The Visual Dictionary of Everyday Things

http://www.amazon.ca/Visual-Dictionary-Everyday-Things/dp/1879431327/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369094877&sr=1-13&keywords=dictionary+of+things

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I'll keep looking.

It seems like you are looking for a classification system like those used in libraries.

This is a link to the description of the classification systems used by the University of Illinois.

http://www.library.illinois.edu/learn/intro/organization.html


There are others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_classification

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Now to find a dictionary that follows one of those systems.

Look for Word Menu by Random House. It is a hierarchical dictionary with definitions. It groups words in 6 groups alphabetically in hundreds of categories and subcategories. It is useful if you are trying to become conversant with the vocabulary of a particular area .