Metaterm

Metaterm is a term used in discussions of metalanguage and terminology to denote a word or symbol that refers to terms themselves rather than to objects in the domain under discussion. In this sense, a metaterm operates at a higher level of abstraction than the terms it describes.

In formal logic and philosophy of language, there is a distinction between the object language and the metalanguage. A metaterm is a term used in the metalanguage to name, classify, or discuss terms that occur in the object language, such as “variable,” “constant,” or “function symbol.”

In linguistics and terminology studies, metaterms are used when analyzing or labeling the vocabulary of a field. They function to talk about terms themselves, not to refer to the referents of those terms. The usage is not uniform, and some authors prefer the related label “metalinguistic term” or simply “metalanguage term.”

Because the term is not universally standardized, readers should look for a definition in the text where it appears and distinguish between metaterms and ordinary terms in the object language.

Examples include using words like “term” or “variable” as metaterms when the sentence discusses what these words mean or how they function in the language’s grammar, rather than making a statement about the real world.

See also: metalanguage, object language, metalinguistics.