from collections import defaultdict def group_by(lst, fn): d = defaultdict(list) for el in lst: d[fn(el)].append(el) return dict(d) from math import floor group_by([6.1, 4.2, 6.3], floor) # {4: [4.2], 6: [6.1, 6.3]} group_by(['one', 'two', 'three'], len) # {3: ['one', 'two'], 5: ['three']}