Taxonomy

Taxonomy; from Greek verb τασσεῖν or tassein, "to classify", and νόμος or nomos, "law", "science".Originally the term only referred to the science of classifying living organisms (alpha taxonomy); however, the term was later applied in a wider sense and, now, may be used to either refer to a classification of things, or the principles underlying that classification.

Almost anything, animate objects, inanimate objects, places, and events, may be classified according to some taxonomic scheme. Taxonomies, which are composed of taxonomic units known as taxa (singular taxon), are frequently hierarchical in structure, commonly displaying parent-child relationships.

The term taxonomy may also apply to relationship schemes other than hierarchies, such as network structures. Other taxonomies may include single children with multi-parents, for example, "Car" might appear with both parents "Vehicle" and "Steel Mechanisms"; to some however, this merely means that 'car' is part of several different taxonomies. A taxonomy might also be a simple organization of objects into groups, or even an alphabetical list. In current usage within "Knowledge Management", taxonomies are seen as slightly less broad than ontologies.