rdfsResource

rdfsResource, commonly written as rdfs:Resource, is the most general class in the RDF Schema vocabulary. It denotes the class of all resources—things that can be subjects or objects of RDF triples.

Literals are not resources, and therefore are not instances of rdfs:Resource. Resources can be identified by IRIs (URIs) or can be anonymous blank nodes. This distinction underpins the RDF model, where only resources participate as subjects or objects, while literals represent concrete values like strings or numbers.

Rdfs:Resource functions as the root of the RDF Schema class hierarchy. Many other classes in RDF Schema and in vocabularies derive from it, providing a generic type for describing resources. It is used to express broad constraints or to indicate that a value in a property’s range or domain is itself a resource.

In practice, rdfs:Resource is often used when a schema or ontology needs to state that values are resources rather than literals. It appears in ontology design as a supertype for resource-valued properties and in definitions that involve domain and range constraints, helping to clarify what kinds of entities a property may refer to.

Some software libraries expose the RDFS Resource concept under code-named constants such as rdfsResource or RDFS.Resource. This reflects common practice in API bindings to provide convenient access to the RDF Schema vocabulary.

See also: RDF, RDF Schema, rdfs:Class, rdfs:Literal.