A taxonomy is a controlled vocabulary, usually in a hierarchy, that describes a particular domain. The terms in a taxonomy represent categories of information rather than individual things. So, a taxonomy might have a category for "cartoon bears", but not a reference to a specific bear like "Yogi" or "Smokey Bear." The word *taxonomy* comes from the Greek *taxis*, meaning arrangement or order, and *nomos*, meaning law or science. The classic taxonomy that many people know is the [Linnaean Taxonomy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linnaean_taxonomy) for the classification of plants, animals, and (originally) minerals. ![[Taxonomic_Rank_Graph.png]] Image:*Annina Breen, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons* The Dewey Decimal Classification system, used commonly in libraries to categorize and organize books, is another widely-known taxonomy.  Image: *ParentingPatch, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons*