taxonomy
n. C / Un. a system for naming and organizing things into groups based on how they are similar. It is often used in science to group animals and plants.
n. a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical one, used for the systematic categorization of organisms or concepts. Often implies a formal or scientific framework.
The library uses a complex taxonomy to organize its books.
Biologists are constantly updating the taxonomy of marine life as new genetic evidence comes to light.
The software developer created a custom taxonomy to tag and retrieve thousands of digital assets based on their resolution, format, and licensing status.
Borrowed from French taxonomie. By surface analysis, taxo- + -nomy.
Uncountable when referring to the science of classification; countable when referring to a specific system of categories.