ontology

/ɑnˈtɑlədʒi/
noun
  1. The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of existence, being, or reality.
    • Ontology tries to answer questions like 'What kinds of things are real?'
    • In philosophy class, we studied ontology and asked what it means for something to exist.
    • The ontology of a video game defines what objects and rules exist in its virtual world.
  2. A formal representation or set of concepts within a specific domain, often used in computer science and information science.
    • The medical ontology lists all known diseases and how they are related.
    • The website uses an ontology to organize its products into categories and relationships.
    • In artificial intelligence, an ontology helps a computer understand the meaning of words.
Synonyms
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