Taxonomylike

Taxonomylike is a term used to describe systems, processes, or structures that organize items into hierarchical categories based on shared attributes, similar to biological taxonomy. It emphasizes levels such as domain, group, type, and attribute, and aims to enable efficient retrieval, comparison, and analysis.

Although not a formal term in taxonomy literature, taxonomylike is commonly used in information science and data management to describe classification frameworks that adopt taxonomic principles without claiming to model living organisms. It is applied across non-biological domains such as library catalogs, product hierarchies in e-commerce, digital asset management, and knowledge organization systems.

Typically these systems use hierarchies, facets, and sometimes polyhierarchy; rely on controlled vocabularies, naming conventions, and metadata tagging; and strive for mutual exclusivity of categories while allowing cross-links between related terms.

Benefits include improved navigation, consistent tagging, interoperability among disparate systems, and scalable search performance. Challenges include rigid structures that do not adapt quickly to change, taxonomy drift as domains evolve, subjective classification, maintenance costs, and the need for governance and version control.

Taxonomylike sits between strict taxonomy and ontology: it borrows hierarchical classification from taxonomy but may lack formal logical relationships such as part–whole or causal links. It can be extended toward ontology-like networks by adding richer relations. Common examples include the Dewey Decimal System, library and information science classifications, UN/LOC classifications, and product category trees used by online retailers.