taxonomy

noun

tax·on·o·my tak-ˈsä-nə-mē

: the study of the general principles of scientific classification : systematics

: classification

especially : orderly classification of plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships

taxonomic

ˌtak-sə-ˈnä-mik

adjective

or less commonly taxonomical

ˌtak-sə-ˈnä-mi-kəl

taxonomically

ˌtak-sə-ˈnä-mi-k(ə-)lē

adverb

taxonomist

tak-ˈsä-nə-mist

noun

Examples of taxonomy in a Sentence

the taxonomies of various plant groups

Recent Examples on the Web The duo will also be discussing ecology, conservation and taxonomy of birds spotted. —

Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 16 Nov. 2023 The exhibition catalogue includes a taxonomy of her techniques, co-authored by Mary Broadway and Katrina Rush. —

Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 11 Oct. 2023 But radiologists actually do about 27 distinct tasks, according to our taxonomy. —

Bygeoff Colvin, Fortune, 26 Sep. 2023 Ruscha’s photographs—deliberately graceless taxonomies of parking lots, swimming pools, palm trees, and the like—seem thin by comparison, lacking the paintings’ dialectic of innocence and wit. —

Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 2 Oct. 2023 In my taxonomy of online harassment, Kiwi Farms is an archetypal networked abuse campaign, with all three orders of harassment bearing down on a person. —

WIRED, 22 Sep. 2023 Austin Wood, a senior stylist at Saks, has developed a helpful taxonomy around faces and frames. —

Eric Twardzik, Robb Report, 23 Aug. 2023 In practice, determining which tools are appropriate to target which risks will require developing a living and breathing taxonomy of all the possible effects AI could have—and how each can best be governed. —

Ian Bremmer and Mustafa Suleyman, Foreign Affairs, 16 Aug. 2023 The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, which oversees the taxonomy of animal species, has drawn a line in the sand, however. —

Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 12 Sep. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'taxonomy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French taxonomie, from Greek táxis "arrangement, order" + French -o- -o- + -nomie -nomy — more at taxis

Note: French taxonomie was a coinage of the Geneva-born botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841), in Théorie élémentaire de la botanique (Paris, 1813). Candolle divided botany into three divisions (p. 19): "… elle se compose 1.^o de la Glossologie, c'est-à-dire, de la connaissance des termes par lesquels on designe les organes des plantes et leurs diverses modification; 2.^o de la Taxonomie [footnote: "Mot formé de ταξις ordre, et νόμος loi, règle."], ou de la Théorie des classifications appliquée au règne végétal; 3.^o de la Phytographie, ou de l'art de décrire les plantes de la manière la plus utile aux progrès de la science …" ("… it is composed of 1.^o Glossology, that is, the recognition of the terms by which the organs of plants are designated, and their various modifications; ; 2.^o Taxonomy [footnote: "Word formed from táxis order, and nómos law, rule."], or the theory of classifications applied to the vegetable kingdom; 3.^o Phytography, or the art of describing plants in the manner most suited to the progress of science"). A more correct compounding form in terms of Greek word formation would have been taxi- (as táxis is an i-stem), and taxinomy did in fact see some use in the 19th century—though Candolle's original coinage has predominated. His parallel introductions, glossology and phytography, have rarely been employed.