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 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 Circa 1985, the East German secret police compiled a full taxonomy of youth musical subcultures. —

Justin E. H. Smith, Harper's Magazine, 14 Aug. 2023 Significantly, the labels don’t include standard museum taxonomies: donor, accession number, owner. —

Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Aug. 2023 Biology Want to study things like Punnett squares, photosynthesis, and taxonomy? —

Skyler Higley, The New Yorker, 13 Aug. 2023 Here, an extremely important taxonomy of Irish hotties. —

Jessica Roy, ELLE, 10 Aug. 2023 The future father of modern taxonomy was born in Råshult, a village in southern Sweden, in 1707. —

Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2023 Reubens and Pee-wee Herman resolutely defied taxonomy. —

Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 July 2023 Microsoft has started naming hackers after the weather in a new naming taxonomy update. —

Tom Warren, The Verge, 19 Apr. 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.