Semigroupoid

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.

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
Commutative groupoid	Unneeded	Required	Required	Required	Required
Magma	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Commutative magma	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded	Required
Quasigroup	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded
Commutative quasigroup	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Required	Required
Unital magma	Required	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded
Commutative unital magma	Required	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded	Required
Loop	Required	Unneeded	Required	Required	Unneeded
Commutative loop	Required	Unneeded	Required	Required	Required
Semigroup	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Unneeded
Commutative semigroup	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded	Required
Associative quasigroup	Required	Required	Unneeded	Required	Unneeded
Commutative-and-associative quasigroup	Required	Required	Unneeded	Required	Required
Monoid	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded	Unneeded
Commutative monoid	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded	Required
Group	Required	Required	Required	Required	Unneeded
Abelian group	Required	Required	Required	Required	Required

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.