Ontologisten

Ontologisten is a Finnish grammatical form formed from the adjective ontologinen, meaning ontological. It represents the genitive plural form of that adjective and is used when an ontological description modifies a plural noun in the genitive case. For example: ontologisten käsitteiden suhteet (“the relationships of ontological concepts”) or ontologisten järjestelmien arkkitehtuuri (“the architecture of ontological systems”).

Usage and meaning: In Finnish scholarly and technical writing, ontologinen describes things related to ontology, a concept central to philosophy and information science. The noun ontologia denotes the study of being in philosophy or, in information science, a formal representation of a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between them. The adjective forms include ontologinen (singular), ontologiset (nominative plural), and ontologisten (genitive plural).

Etymology: The term derives from Greek onto- meaning “being” and -logia, and it entered Finnish through the word ontologia, with the adjectival form ontologinen adapting to Finnish morphology.

See also: Ontologia (Finnish), Ontology (English).