ontology

Etymology
(1606, Ogdoas Scholastica, by (Lorhardus), from, present participle of  +.

First known English use 1663: ''Archelogia philosophica nova; or, New principles of Philosophy. Containing Philosophy in general, Metaphysicks or Ontology, Dynamilogy or a Discourse of Power, Religio Philosophi or Natural Theology, Physicks or Natural philosophy,'' by Gideon Harvey (1636–1702), London, Thomson, 1663.

Popularized as a philosophical term by German philosopher Christian Wolff (1679–1754).

Noun

 * 1)  The branch of metaphysics that addresses the nature or essential characteristics of being and of things that exist; the study of being qua being.
 * 2)  In a subject view, or a world view, the set of conceptual or material things or classes of things that are recognised as existing, or are assumed to exist in context, and their interrelations; in a body of theory, the ontology comprises the domain of discourse, the things that are defined as existing, together with whatever emerges from their mutual implications.
 * 3)  The theory of a particular philosopher or school of thought concerning the fundamental types of entity in the universe.
 * 4)  A logical system involving theory of classes, developed by Stanislaw Lesniewski (1886-1939).
 * 5)  A structure of concepts or entities within a domain, organized by relationships; a system model.
 * 1)  A logical system involving theory of classes, developed by Stanislaw Lesniewski (1886-1939).
 * 2)  A structure of concepts or entities within a domain, organized by relationships; a system model.
 * 1)  A structure of concepts or entities within a domain, organized by relationships; a system model.

Usage notes
In the field of philosophy there is some variation in how the term ontology is used. Ontology is a much more recent term than metaphysics and takes its root meaning explicitly from the Greek term for being. Ontology can be used loosely as a rough equivalent to metaphysics or more precisely to denote that subset of the domain of metaphysics which is focused rigorously on the study of being as being.

Translations

 * Armenian:
 * Azerbaijani: ontologiya
 * Bashkir: онтология
 * Belarusian: антало́гія
 * Bengali:
 * Catalan: ontologia
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:
 * Czech:
 * Dutch:
 * Faroese: verufrøði
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * Galician:
 * Georgian: ონტოლოგია
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Haitian Creole: ontoloji
 * Hebrew:
 * Hungarian:
 * Icelandic: verufræði
 * Indonesian:
 * Irish: ointeolaíocht
 * Italian:
 * Japanese: 存在論, オントロジー, 本体論
 * Kazakh: онтология
 * Korean: 존재론(存在論)
 * Kyrgyz: онтология
 * Latin: ontologia
 * Latvian: ontoloģija
 * Macedonian: онтологија
 * Malay: ontologi
 * Mongolian:
 * Cyrillic: онтологи
 * Norwegian: ontologi
 * Occitan:
 * Persian: هستی‌شناسی
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian:
 * Russian:
 * Serbo-Croatian:, онтоло̀гија
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:
 * Tagalog: dalubmagingan
 * Tamil: உள்ளியம்
 * Thai:
 * Turkish: varlık felsefesi,
 * Ukrainian:
 * Vietnamese: (本體論)
 * Yiddish: אָנטאָלאָגיע


 * Catalan: ontologia
 * Czech:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Irish: ointeolaíocht
 * Italian:
 * Latvian: ontoloģija
 * Macedonian: онтологија
 * Malay: ontologi
 * Norwegian: ontologi
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian:
 * Russian:
 * Serbo-Croatian:, онтоло̀гија
 * Spanish: