taxonomy

American  

[tak-son-uh-mee] / tækˈsɒn ə mi /

noun

• taxonomies
  plural

1. the science or technique of classification.

2. a classification into ordered categories.

   a proposed taxonomy of educational objectives.

3. Biology. the science dealing with the description, identification, naming, and classification of organisms.

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taxonomy British  

/ tækˈsɒnəmɪ /

noun

1. 1. the branch of biology concerned with the classification of organisms into groups based on similarities of structure, origin, etc

   2. the practice of arranging organisms in this way

2. the science or practice of classification

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taxonomy Scientific  

/ tăk-sŏn′ə-mē /

1. The scientific classification of organisms into specially named groups based either on shared characteristics or on evolutionary relationships as inferred from the fossil record or established by genetic analysis.

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taxonomy Cultural  

1. The classification of living things. (See Linnean classification.)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• taxonomer
  noun
• taxonomist
  noun
• nontaxonomic
  adjective
• nontaxonomical
  adjective
• taxonomic
  adjective
• taxonomical
  adjective
• nontaxonomically
  adverb
• taxonomically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• taxonomies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of taxonomy

First recorded in 1805–15, taxonomy is from the French word taxonomie. See taxo-, -nomy

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Explanation

Taxonomy is all about organizing and classifying. To make it sound more scientific, you could refer to your project of reorganizing your spice rack according to smell as a taxonomy of spices. Taxonomy is a word used mainly in biology to talk about classifying living organisms, organizing them according to their similarities. If you've ever seen a chart with animals divided into species, genus, and family, you know what scientific taxonomy is. The word comes very straightforwardly from Greek words for "arrangement" — taxis — and "method" — nomia. So any special method for arranging or organizing things can be called taxonomy.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

taxonomy taxonomies

Modern taxonomy, the science of naming and classifying organisms, increasingly attempts to reflect actual evolutionary relationships by grouping species according to shared ancestry.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026

Companies aren’t required to categorize perks, so reporters created a taxonomy of nine types of perks, including an “other” category.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

This is also where marinated beans diverge from bean salad, at least in my personal taxonomy.

From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2026

The old taxonomy still applies: people, process and technology.

From MarketWatch ● May 27, 2026

The reigning discipline in biology was taxonomy, an elaborate attempt to classify and subclassify all living things into distinct categories: Kingdoms, Phylae, Classes, Orders, Families, Genera, and Species.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

“The Murder Game” proliferates taxonomies of its own, which often overlap and can become repetitive, especially when the same material is repeated across different chapters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026

However, this is only likely to happen in stages from 2023 given there are no global taxonomies or rules on what constitute sustainable investments.

From Reuters ● Dec. 20, 2022

There are also broader metaverse-related taxonomies like one from game designer Raph Koster, who draws a distinction between “online worlds,” “multiverses,” and “metaverses.”

From The Verge ● Oct. 4, 2021

Zhao’s films have no use for conventional labels or taxonomies; they slip fluidly between myriad registers of cinematic engagement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2021

The isms and taxonomies of modern art are, to a large degree, essentially the isms and taxonomy established by MoMA over the last century.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 8, 2021

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