tipas

Tipas is a Lithuanian noun meaning type, kind, form, or model. It is used to classify and describe objects, concepts, and phenomena across everyday speech and formal writing. The term appears across many fields that involve categorization, such as science, technology, linguistics, and business, and it often combines with modifiers to specify a particular category, for example "šio tipo" (of this type).

In biology and taxonomy, tipas refers to the reference form used to define a species or other taxon, aligning with the English term "type" as in type specimen. In linguistic analysis, tipas is used in discussions of the type-token distinction to denote a general form rather than a specific instance. In information technology and computer science, duomenų tipas means data type, naming categories such as numbers, text, or boolean values that a program can manipulate.

In everyday language, tipas can denote style or pattern, as in phrases like "šio tipo" or "tokio tipo žmogus" (a person of that type). It also serves as a generic term in instructions or comparisons where a variant or exemplar is being described.

Etymology: Tipas is a native Lithuanian word with cognates in related Baltic languages. It has a long history of use in classification and description.

See also: data type, taxonomy, type specimen, linguistic type-token distinction.