Standard Lemma guide

taxonomy

noun · 6 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: /tækˈsɒn.ə.mi/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American, dialectal: /tækˈsɑ.nə.mi/ of Canada
  • Canada, dialectal: /tækˈsɒn.ə.mi/ of the US
  • Australian: /tækˈsɔn.ə.mi/
  • New-Zealand: /tɛkˈsɒn.ə.mi/
  • New-Zealand: [tɛkˈsɔ̟n.ə.mi]
  • rhymes with -ɒnəmi
  • CMU ARPABET: T AE2 K S AO1 N AH0 M IY2 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The science, technique, or process used to make a classification.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • Holonym: ontology (relational rather than solely hierarchical)

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A classification; especially, a classification in a hierarchical system.

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

Broader terms: classification, schema, scheme

3

noun

Meaning 3

The science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Qualifier: life sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

practice of classifying plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: categorization, categorisation, classification, compartmentalization, compartmentalisation, assortment

5

noun

Meaning 5

(biology) study of the general principles of scientific classification

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: systematics

Narrower terms: cladistics, cladistic analysis

6

noun

Meaning 6

a classification of organisms into groups based on similarities of structure or origin etc

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: hierarchy

History

Etymology

Borrowed from French taxonomie. By surface analysis, taxo- + -nomy.

Across languages

Translations

107 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: taksonomie — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Albanian: taksonomi — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Arabic: عِلْم التَّصْنِيف (ʕilm at-taṣnīf) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Armenian: տաքսոնոմիա (takʻsonomia) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Armenian: կարգաբանություն (kargabanutʻyun) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Armenian: կարգաբաշխություն (kargabašxutʻyun) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Azerbaijani: taksonomiya — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Belarusian: таксано́мія (taksanómija) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Bulgarian: таксоно́мия (taksonómija) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Burmese: မျိုးခွဲပညာ (myui:hkwai:pa.nya) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Catalan: taxonomia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Chinese Mandarin: 分類學 /分类学 (fēnlèixué) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Czech: taxonomie — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Danish: taksonomi — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Dutch: taxonomie — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Esperanto: taksonomio — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Estonian: taksonoomia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Finnish: taksonomia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • French: taxinomie — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • French: taxonomie — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • French: taxologie — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Galician: taxonomía — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Georgian: ტაქსონომია (ṭaksonomia) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • German: Taxonomie — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Greek: ταξινομία (taxinomía) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Hebrew: טַקְסוֹנוֹמְיָה (taksonómya) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Hindi: वर्गिकी (vargikī) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Hungarian: rendszertan — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Hungarian: taxonómia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Icelandic: flokkunarfræði — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Indonesian: taksonomi — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Italian: tassonomia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Japanese: 分類学 (bunruigaku) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Kazakh: таксономия (taksonomiä) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Korean: 분류학 (bullyuhak) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Kyrgyz: таксономия (taksonomiya) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Latvian: taksonomija — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Lithuanian: taksonomija — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Macedonian: таксономија (taksonomija) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Malay: kaji urutan — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Malay: taksonomi — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Maltese: tassonomija — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Māori: pūnaha whakarōpū — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Norwegian Bokmål: taksonomi — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: taksonomi — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Occitan: taxonomia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Occitan: taxinomia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Persian: آرایهبندی (ârâye-bandi) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Persian: آرایهشناسی (ârâye-šenâsi) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Polish: taksonomia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Portuguese: taxonomia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Portuguese: taxinomia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Portuguese: taxionomia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Romanian: taxonomie — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Russian: таксоно́мия (taksonómija) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Serbo-Croatian: таксоно̀мија — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Serbo-Croatian: система̀тика — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Serbo-Croatian: taksonòmija — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Serbo-Croatian: sistemàtika — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Slovak: taxonómia — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Slovene: taksonomija — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Spanish: taxonomía — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Swedish: taxonomi — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Tajik: таксономия (taksonomiya) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Thai: อนุกรมวิธาน (à-nú-grom-wí-taan) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Tigrinya: ስነ ምደባ (sənä mədäba) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Turkish: sınıflandırma — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Turkish: taksonomi — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Turkmen: taksonomiýa — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Ukrainian: таксоно́мія (taksonómija) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Uzbek: taksonomiya — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Vietnamese: phân loại học — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Welsh: tacsonomeg — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Yiddish: טאַקסאָנאָמיִע (taksonomie) — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Zazaki: taksonomiye — science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms
  • Afrikaans: taksonomie — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Arabic: تَصْنِيف (taṣnīf) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Bulgarian: класифика́ция (klasifikácija) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Catalan: taxonomia — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Chinese Mandarin: 分類法 /分类法 (fēnlèifǎ) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Chinese Mandarin: 分類 /分类 (fēnlèi) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Danish: taksonomi — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Danish: systematik — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Finnish: taksonomia — classification in a hierarchical system
  • French: taxinomie — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Galician: taxonomía — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Greek: ταξινόμηση (taxinómisi) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Hungarian: osztályozás — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Japanese: 分類法 (bunruihō) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Japanese: 分類 (bunrui) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Korean: 분류법 (bullyubeop) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Korean: 분류 (bullyu) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Malay: taksonomi — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Maltese: tassonomija — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Norwegian Bokmål: taksonomi — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: taksonomi — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Portuguese: taxonomia — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Portuguese: taxinomia — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Portuguese: taxionomia — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Romanian: taxonomie — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Romanian: ierarhică clasificare — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Russian: система́тика (sistemátika) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Russian: классифика́ция (klassifikácija) — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Serbo-Croatian: таксоно̀мија — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Serbo-Croatian: taksonòmija — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Swedish: taxonomi — classification in a hierarchical system
  • Swedish: systematik — classification in a hierarchical system
Real reading context

taxonomy in complete knowledge articles