Knowledge Management: Taxonomy (Definitions)

"A classification system." (Ruth C Clark & Chopeta Lyons, "Graphics for Learning", 2004)

"A hierarchical structure within which related items are organized, classified, or categorized, thus illustrating the relationships between them." (Richard Caladine, "Taxonomies for Technology", 2008)

"A taxonomy is a hierarchical structure displaying parent-child relationships (a classification). A taxonomy extends a vocabulary and is a special case of a the more general ontology." (Troels Andreasen & Henrik Bulskov, "Query Expansion by Taxonomy", 2008)

"An orderly classification that explicitly expresses the relationships, usually hierarchical (e.g., genus/species, whole/part, class/instance), between and among the things being classified." (J P Getty Trust, "Introduction to Metadata" 2nd Ed., 2008)

"This term traditionally refers to the study of the general principles of classification. It is widely used to describe computer-based systems that use hierarchies of topics to help users sift through information." (Craig F Smith & H Peter Alesso, "Thinking on the Web: Berners-Lee, Gödel and Turing", 2008)

"A kind of classification method which organizes all kinds of things into predefined hierarchical structure." (Yong Yu et al, "Social Tagging: Properties and Applications", 2010)

"Any system of categories used to organize something, including documents, often less comprehensive than a thesaurus." (Steven Woods et al, "Knowledge Dissemination in Portals", 2011)

"Generally, a collection of controlled vocabulary terms organized into a structure of parent-child relationships. Each term is in at least one relationship with another term in the taxonomy. Each parent's relationship with all of its children are of only one type (whole-part, genus-species, or type-instance). The addition of associative relationships creates a thesaurus." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"A definitional hierarchy of concepts. Traditional taxonomies are tree-structured (a concept is assumed to have exactly one superconcept and multiple subconcepts). The higher a concept is positioned in the definitional hierarchy, the more individuals it describes (the comprehension of the concept), but the less definitional properties are needed (the meaning of a concept)." (Marcus Spies & Said Tabet, "Emerging Standards and Protocols for Governance, Risk, and Compliance Management", 2012) 

"A hierarchical representation of metadata. The top level is the category, and each subsequent level provides a refinement (detail) of the top-level term." (Charles Cooper & Ann Rockley, "Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy" 2nd Ed., 2012)

"A hierarchical structure of information components, for example, a subject, business–unit, or functional taxonomy, any part of which can be used to classify a content item in relation to other items in the structure." (Robert F Smallwood, "Managing Electronic Records: Methods, Best Practices, and Technologies", 2013)

"A classification of text" (Daniel Linstedt & W H Inmon, "Data Architecture: A Primer for the Data Scientist", 2014)

"A hierarchical structure of information components (e.g., a subject, business unit, or functional taxonomy), any part of which can be used to classify a content item in relation to other items in the structure." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices", 2014)

"provides context within the ontology. Taxonomies are used to capture hierarchical relationships between elements of interest. " (Judith S Hurwitz, "Cognitive Computing and Big Data Analytics", 2015)

"Taxonomy is the science and practice of classification. Taxonomies are used when categorizing real-life as well as artificial phenomenon and the aim is to make systematic studies easier." (Ulf Larson et al, "Guidance for Selecting Data Collection Mechanisms for Intrusion Detection", 2015)

"A taxonomy is a hierarchy that is created by a set of interconnected class inclusion relationship." (Robert J Glushko, "The Discipline of Organizing: Professional Edition" 4th Ed., 2016)

"A hierarchical structure of information components, for example, a subject, business unit, or functional taxonomy, any part of which can be used to classify a content item in relation to other items in the structure." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance for Healthcare Professionals", 2018)