Advanced · Cognitive

Ontology

Visual diagram · (in preparation) · Math · (in preparation) · Worked example · 3 difficulty levels.

TL;DR. A formal specification of the concepts, properties, and relationships in a domain.

Technical Definition

A formal specification of the concepts, properties, and relationships in a domain.

How it works

Ontologies (Schema.org, SNOMED CT, FIBO) enable machines to share a common vocabulary and reason consistently across systems. Used in search, biomedical informatics, finance, and as scaffolding for retrieval and AI agents.

Related Concepts

• Semantic Understanding — Grasping the meaning of language, not just its surface form.
• Knowledge Representation — How facts and relationships are encoded so a system can reason over them.
• Heuristics — Practical rules of thumb that produce good-enough solutions when optimal ones are too expensive.