TAXONOMY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does taxonomy mean? 

• TAXONOMY (noun)
  The noun TAXONOMY has 3 senses:

1. a classification of organisms into groups based on similarities of structure or origin etc

2. (biology) study of the general principles of scientific classification

3. practice of classifying plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships

  Familiarity information: TAXONOMY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TAXONOMY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A classification of organisms into groups based on similarities of structure or origin etc

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("taxonomy" is a kind of...):

hierarchy (a series of ordered groupings of people or things within a system)

Derivation:

taxonomic; taxonomical (of or relating to taxonomy)

taxonomist (a biologist who specializes in the classification of organisms into groups on the basis of their structure and origin and behavior)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(biology) study of the general principles of scientific classification

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("taxonomy" is a kind of...):

systematics (the science of systematic classification)

Domain category:

biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "taxonomy"):

cladistic analysis; cladistics (a taxonomic system of classifying species based on the branching patterns of cladograms that are built to infer phylogenetic relations)

Derivation:

taxonomic; taxonomical (of or relating to taxonomy)

taxonomist (a biologist who specializes in the classification of organisms into groups on the basis of their structure and origin and behavior)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Practice of classifying plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("taxonomy" is a kind of...):

assortment; categorisation; categorization; classification; compartmentalisation; compartmentalization (the act of distributing things into classes or categories of the same type)

Derivation:

taxonomic; taxonomical (of or relating to taxonomy)

taxonomist (a biologist who specializes in the classification of organisms into groups on the basis of their structure and origin and behavior)

 Context examples 

Used to specify that the taxonomy rank is unknown.

(No Rank, NCI Thesaurus)

Those in the mouse taxonomy are currently arbitrary, and the biologic significance of extent of invasion remains to be established.

(Microinvasive Carcinoma of the Mouse Prostate Gland, NCI Thesaurus/MMHCC)

This relationship relates concepts through logical hierarchy and forms the foundation of a taxonomy.

(isa Relationship, NCI Thesaurus)

This may be a node in a taxonomy or ontology or a term in a thesaurus, etc.

(Classification Scheme Item, NCI Thesaurus)

The vertical relationships consist of "isa" statements that form a logical hierarchy (taxonomy or subsumption graph).

(NCI Thesaurus Concept, NCI Thesaurus)

The difference between previous estimates and the current figures from this new study just highlight the huge gap in taxonomy that needs filling”, said Domingos Cardoso, from the Biology Institute at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil.

(Inventory revises down Amazon tree species list, SciDev.Net)