Terminologisystem

Terminologisystem, or terminology system, is an organized repository of terms and their metadata used to manage specialized language within an organization or domain. It aims to support consistent term usage across technical writing, translations, metadata tagging, and information retrieval.

A terminologisystem typically comprises term entries with fields such as preferred term, synonyms, language variants, part of speech, definitions, scope notes, usage guidelines, and example sentences. Each entry can be linked to relationships (broader term, narrower term, related term) and status (approved, deprecated). The system may implement a controlled vocabulary, thesaurus, taxonomy, or ontology and is often implemented in a database or glossary management software. It supports data exchange through standard formats and is integrated with content management, translation management, and search systems.

Functions include term creation and review workflows, term validation, metadata tagging of documents, term extraction from texts, translation support, and advanced search and semantic tagging. A terminologisystem helps improve consistency, reduce ambiguity, accelerate localization, and enhance retrieval of domain-specific information.

Governance and standards: organizations may adopt formal terminology standards, such as ISO 704 for terminology work and ISO 12620 for terminology data modeling. A terminology manager or terminologist oversees scope, quality, lifecycle, access control, and versioning.

Examples of terminologisystems are used in fields such as healthcare, manufacturing, information technology, and government. Public ontologies and controlled vocabularies (e.g., medical terminologies) can serve as reference terminologies within larger systems.