termand

Termand is a neologism in information science used to describe the basic unit of a controlled vocabulary that binds a term to its metadata. In practice, a terMand treats the term, its definition, identifiers, and related information as a single retrievable object. The concept aligns with thesauri, ontologies, and knowledge graphs but emphasizes the compact packaging of term and metadata for interoperability and reuse.

A terMand entry typically includes a stable identifier (such as a URI or alphanumeric ID), the preferred term string, language, part of speech, a formal definition, synonyms, and hierarchical relationships (broader and narrower terms) as well as related terms. Additional fields may cover scope notes, provenance, version history, and usage guidelines. Structured representations are commonly encoded in formats like SKOS, RDF, or JSON-LD to support machine readability. The terMand approach aims to simplify term management across vocabularies and datasets while preserving human-friendly context.

Termand is used to support disambiguation, vocabulary alignment, and data integration in information systems, digital libraries, data catalogs, and knowledge graphs. By packaging term and metadata as a consistent object, terMands enable automated reasoning, reliable search, and clearer governance of terminology across organizations and domains.

Example terMand entry: identifier TMD-0001; term Apple; language en; part of speech noun; definition "A round fruit of the species Malus domestica, typically sweet and edible."; synonyms "fruit, pome"; broader term "fruit"; provenance "Created 2025-01-10 by the TerMand Project"; version 1.0.

See also: controlled vocabulary, thesaurus, ontology, metadata, SKOS.