entitiesthings

Entitiesthings is a neologism used in philosophy, linguistics, and information science to denote the broad class of referents that everyday language treats as “things” or “entities.” The term emphasizes that the label things can cover a wide spectrum, from concrete objects to abstract constructs, events, processes, and digital items. It functions as a flexible placeholder category for discussing what counts as a thing in different theoretical contexts rather than prescribing a fixed ontology.

In practice, entitiesthings can include physical objects such as chairs and trees, abstract items like numbers and propositions, events such as meetings or wars, properties and relations, as well as artifacts in information systems like files, records, and software objects. The concept is used to explore how different disciplines classify and refer to diverse items, and how language maps to ontology and data models. It also appears in comparative discussions about human cognition and linguistic categorization, where speakers rely on a common but imprecise label to talk about heterogeneous referents.

Etymologically, entitiesthings blends elements of “entities” and “things” to highlight their conceptual overlap and boundaries. It is not a standard term with a formal lineage; rather, it has emerged in online glossaries, interdisciplinary discussions, and educational contexts as a convenient shorthand for debates about reference, instantiation, and categorization.

Critics argue that the term is vague and potentially unhelpful for precise analysis. Proponents contend that it can illuminate cross-disciplinary perspectives on what constitutes a thing, while urging the use of more specific taxonomies such as objects, events, properties, and abstracta when appropriate.