Standard Lemma guide

nomenclature

noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /nə(ʊ)ˈmɛŋ.klət͡ʃə/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /-ˈmɛn-/
  • Received-Pronunciation, obsolete: /ˈnəʊmɪn.klət͡ʃə/
  • Received-Pronunciation, obsolete: /ˈnəʊmɛn.klət͡ʃə/
  • General-American: /ˈnoʊmənˌkleɪt͡ʃɚ/
  • General-American: /ˌnoʊmənˈkleɪt͡ʃɚ/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: N OW1 M AH0 N K L EY2 CH ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A set of rules used for forming the names or terms in a particular field of arts or sciences.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A set of names or terms.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A name.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, obsolete, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • legal terminology
  • biological nomenclature
  • the language of sociology

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: terminology, language

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: word

Narrower terms: markup language, toponymy, toponomy

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin nōmenclātūra (“a calling by name, list of names”), from nōmen (“name”) + calāre (“call”). Doublet of nomenklatura.

Across languages

Translations

51 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: تَسْمِيَة (tasmiya) — set of names or terms
  • Belarusian: наменклату́ра (namjenklatúra) — set of names or terms
  • Belarusian: намэнкляту́ра (namenkljatúra) — set of names or terms
  • Bulgarian: номенклату́ра (nomenklatúra) — set of names or terms
  • Catalan: nomenclatura — set of names or terms
  • Chinese Mandarin: 命名法 (mìngmíngfǎ) — set of names or terms
  • Czech: nomenklatura — set of names or terms
  • Danish: nomenklatur — set of names or terms
  • Dutch: nomenclatuur — set of names or terms
  • Esperanto: nomenklaturo — set of names or terms
  • Estonian: nomenklatuur — set of names or terms
  • Finnish: nimistö — set of names or terms
  • French: nomenclature — set of names or terms
  • Galician: nomenclatura — set of names or terms
  • Georgian: ნომენკლატურა (nomenḳlaṭura) — set of names or terms
  • German: Nomenklatur — set of names or terms
  • Greek: ονοματολογία (onomatología) — set of names or terms
  • Greek: νομενκλατούρα (nomenklatoúra) — set of names or terms
  • Hebrew: נוֹמֶנְקְלָטוּרָה (nomenklatúra) — set of names or terms
  • Hindi: नामकरण (nāmakraṇ) — set of names or terms
  • Hungarian: nómenklatúra — set of names or terms
  • Irish: ainmníocht — set of names or terms
  • Italian: nomenclatura — set of names or terms
  • Japanese: 命名法 (meimeihō) — set of names or terms
  • Kazakh: атаулар (ataular) — set of names or terms
  • Kazakh: номенклатура (nomenklatura) — set of names or terms
  • Khmer: សមញ្ញា (saʼmaññaa) — set of names or terms
  • Korean: 명명법 (myeongmyeongbeop) — set of names or terms
  • Kyrgyz: номенклатура (nomenklatura) — set of names or terms
  • Macedonian: номенклату́ра (nomenklatúra) — set of names or terms
  • Malayalam: നാമകരണം (nāmakaraṇaṁ) — set of names or terms
  • Norwegian Bokmål: nomenklatur — set of names or terms
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: nomenklatur — set of names or terms
  • Occitan: nomenclatura — set of names or terms
  • Polish: nazewnictwo — set of names or terms
  • Polish: nomenklatura — set of names or terms
  • Portuguese: nomenclatura — set of names or terms
  • Romanian: nomenclatură — set of names or terms
  • Russian: номенклату́ра (nomenklatúra) — set of names or terms
  • Scottish Gaelic: ainmeachadh — set of names or terms
  • Serbo-Croatian: номенклату́ра — set of names or terms
  • Serbo-Croatian: nomenklatúra — set of names or terms
  • Slovak: nomenklatúra — set of names or terms
  • Slovene: nomenklatura — set of names or terms
  • Spanish: nomenclatura — set of names or terms
  • Swedish: nomenklatur — set of names or terms
  • Tagalog: kangalanan — set of names or terms
  • Turkish: terimbilgisi — set of names or terms
  • Ukrainian: номенклату́ра (nomenklatúra) — set of names or terms
  • Uzbek: nomenklatura — set of names or terms
  • Vietnamese: danh pháp — set of names or terms
Real reading context

nomenclature in complete knowledge articles