What is the difference between the status and the status category?

[Jenny N_]

I am new to Jira. I work my way through the system. I created a project and now i can select a status and a status category. But i wondered what exactly is the difference between these two? Hope someone can help me. 

Thank you in advance!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

A status is a display for the humans that tells us where an issue is in its lifecycle.

A status category is a broad ranging and simple human classification of all the status.

Imagine you have a need to track "make a cup of tea".  At any point in the process, you can point at the task and say "we are here in the process".  So you've got a process of

I want a cup of tea -> boiling kettle -> mix tea and water in the pot -> steeping -> splashing milk in cup and pouring -> I have tea

Each one of those is a status.  And each status can be put in one of three categories - to do, in progress, done.  In this example, "I want a cup of tea" is "to do", "I have a cup of tea" is "done", and all the others are "in progress" because they're progression.

[Jenny N_]

I understand, thank you so much for the easy explanation!