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Noun: ontology  ón'tó-lu-jee
  1. The metaphysical study of the nature of being and existence
    "The course in ontology examined fundamental questions about reality and existence"
     
  2. (computing) a rigorous and exhaustive organization of some knowledge domain that is usually hierarchical and contains all the relevant entities and their relations
    "The team developed an ontology to represent the complex relationships in biological systems"

Derived forms: ontologies

Type of: arrangement, metaphysics, organisation [Brit], organization, system

Encyclopedia: Ontology