ontology.

1. The philosophical study or an account of what exists and its basic categories.

2. A structured model of concepts and relations within a domain, especially in information systems.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• social ontology
• ontology of a theory

On the page

The theory’s ontology included relations as well as individual objects.

Social ontology examined the status of institutions and collective practices.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable for the field; singular ontology and plural ontologies for accounts or structured models. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: explicit explanation, scope and categorization, proof and interpretation, philosophical foundations. Disciplines: academic writing, formal reasoning, philosophy. Commonness: moderately common.