Originally a classic "wastebasket taxon", the family included any white-, yellow-, or pink-spored genera in the Agaricales not already classified as belonging to e.g. the Amanitaceae, Lepiotaceae, Hygrophoraceae, Pluteaceae, or Entolomataceae.

As of 2006, validly published families segregated from the Tricholomataceae include the Hydnangiaceae, Lyophyllaceae, Marasmiaceae, Mycenaceae, Omphalotaceae, Physalacriaceae, and Pleurotaceae.

In 2014 a study recovered seven monophyletic genera within the Tricholomataceae: Leucopaxillus, Tricholoma, Pseudotricholoma, Porpoloma s.str, Dennisiomyces, Corneriella, and Albomagister.

A new suborder Tricholomatineae was proposed to cover Tricholomataceae, Lyophyllaceae, Entolomataceae, Macrocystidiaceae, and Clitocybe gibba.

[10][11] The extinct genus Archaeomarasmius, described from Turonian-age New Jersey amber,[1] is one of four known genera of Agaricales in the fossil record.