ontology
Pluralontologies (some meanings)
- 1The branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and essential features of being and of the things that exist; the study of being as such.
His real concern was with ontology: what it is for anything, and above all a person, to be.
The seminar begins with ontology before it turns to questions of knowledge and value.
UsageAs the name of a field it takes no the, like ethics: concerned with ontology.
Note
The field's name goes back to New Latin ontologia, found in Jacob Lorhard's Ogdoas Scholastica of 1606 and built from Greek ōn, ontos, "being", and logos, "account": an account of being, which is still the job.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Ontology derives from New Latin ontologia. en.wiktionary.org
- Jacob Lorhard's Ogdoas Scholastica was published in 1606 and contains ontologia. en.wikipedia.org
- The Greek components mean being and account. en.wiktionary.org
- 2A structured model of the concepts or entities within a domain, organized by the relationships between them.
The hospital built an ontology of diseases, symptoms, and treatments so its software could link patient records.
Shared ontologies let different labs describe genes and proteins in the same terms.
UsageOften confused with taxonomy, which arranges terms in a hierarchy; an ontology also links them sideways.
Note
Information scientists write their ontologies in machine-readable form so that software can reason with them: classes such as Patient or Drug, their properties, and relations such as treats.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Ontologies can be encoded in machine-readable form to support software reasoning. w3.org
- Ontologies represent classes, their properties, and relationships. protege.stanford.edu
- 3The kinds of things that a particular worldview, theory, or philosopher holds to exist, and how they relate to one another.
A strict materialist's ontology has room for particles and fields but none for souls.
The novel's ontology, crowded with gods, spirits, and talking rivers, is never questioned by its characters.
Note
Here the discipline's name is turned on its own subject matter: not the study of being, but the stock of things a particular outlook counts as real. Daniel Dennett's From Bacteria to Bach and Back (2017) puts it at its plainest: believe in ghosts, and ghosts are in your ontology, along with tables and chairs and songs and vacations, and snow.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Daniel Dennett wrote From Bacteria to Bach and Back. penguin.co.uk
- The book was first published in 2017. res.cloudinary.com
- Dennett illustrates ontology with ghosts alongside tables, chairs, songs, vacations and snow. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meaning
- 4Stanisław Leśniewski's (1886–1939) system of logic, a calculus of names built on the word "is" as its basic sign.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of ontology apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
A learned borrowing from New Latin ontologia, coined in 1606 by Jacob Lorhard, from Ancient Greek ṓn, óntos ("being") + lógos ("account"); by surface analysis, onto- + -logy. Its first known English use is in Gideon Harvey's 1663 Archelogia philosophica nova, and the German philosopher Christian Wolff popularized it as a philosophical term.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 8 facts
- Ontology is a learned borrowing from New Latin ontologia. en.wiktionary.org
- Jacob Lorhard coined ontologia in 1606. wilson.fas.harvard.edu
- The Latin formation derives from the Ancient Greek components ontos and logos. en.wiktionary.org
- Ancient Greek ṓn, with genitive óntos, means being. en.wiktionary.org
- Ancient Greek logos can mean account. en.wiktionary.org
- Ontology can be analysed as onto- plus -logy. en.wiktionary.org
- The first known English occurrence is in Gideon Harvey's Archelogia philosophica nova, published in 1663. en.wikipedia.org
- Christian Wolff was a German philosopher who popularized ontology as a philosophical term. en.wiktionary.org