different between ontology vs taxonomy

English

Etymology

Originally Latin ontologia (1606, Ogdoas Scholastica, by Jacob Lorhard (Lorhardus)), from Ancient Greek ?? (?n, “on”), present participle of ???? (eimí, “being, existing, essence”) + ????? (lógos, “account”).

First known English use 1663: Archelogia philosophica nova; or, New principles of Philosophy. Containing Philosophy in general, Metaphysicks or Ontology, Dynamilogy or a Discourse of Power, Religio Philosophi or Natural Theology, Physicks or Natural philosophy, by Gideon Harvey (1636/7-1702), London, Thomson, 1663.

Popularized as a philosophical term by German philosopher Christian Wolff (1679–1754).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?t?l?d??i/
• Rhymes: -?l?d?i

Noun

ontology (countable and uncountable, plural ontologies)

1. (uncountable, philosophy) The branch of metaphysics that addresses the nature or essential characteristics of being and of things that exist; the study of being qua being.
2. (uncountable, philosophy) In a subject view, or a world view, the set of conceptual or material things or classes of things that are recognised as existing, or are assumed to exist in context; in a body of theory, the ontology comprises the domain of discourse, the things that are defined as existing, together with whatever emerges from their mutual implications.
3. (countable, philosophy) The theory of a particular philosopher or school of thought concerning the fundamental types of entity in the universe.
   • 2000, C. D. C. Reeve, Substantial Knowledge: Aristotle's Metaphysics, Hackett Publishing, p. 97:

     The answer to the controversial question of whether Aristotle's ontology includes non-substantial particulars, then, is that it does.

4. (logic) A logical system involving theory of classes, developed by Stanislaw Lesniewski (1886-1939).
5. (countable, computer science, information science) A structure of concepts or entities within a domain, organized by relationships; a system model.

Usage notes

In the field of philosophy there is some variation in how the term ontology is used. Ontology is a much more recent term than metaphysics and takes its root meaning explicitly from the Greek term for being. Ontology can be used loosely as a rough equivalent to metaphysics or more precisely to denote that subset of the domain of metaphysics which is focused rigorously on the study of being as being.

Holonyms

• metaphysics

Derived terms

Related terms

• ontic
• ontically
• ontonomy

Translations

References

• Webster, Noah (1828) , “ontology”, in An American Dictionary of the English Language
• ontology in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “ontology” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “ontology”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• "ontology" by F.P. Siegfried, in The Catholic Encyclopedia (Robert Appleton Company, New York, 1911)
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)
• Dictionary of Philosophy, Dagobert D. Runes (editor), Philosophical Library (1962); see: "Ontology" by James K. Feibleman, page 219
• "Ontology" by Tom Gruber to appear in the Encyclopedia of Database Systems, Ling Liu and M. Tamer Özsu (editors), Springer-Verlag (2008)

Anagrams

• tonology

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French taxonomie. Surface analysis taxo- +? -nomy.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tæk?s?n?mi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /tæk?s??n?mi/
• Rhymes: -?n?mi

Noun

taxonomy (countable and uncountable, plural taxonomies)

1. The science or the technique used to make a classification.
2. A classification; especially, a classification in a hierarchical system.
3. (taxonomy, uncountable) The science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms.

Synonyms

• taxonomics
• (science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms): alpha taxonomy

Coordinate terms

• nomenclature
• ontology

Derived terms

Translations