üldtermidest

Üldtermidest is the Estonian term for general terms, i.e., words that refer to broad categories under which more specific terms fall. In linguistics and lexicography such terms are commonly called general terms or hypernyms. They contrast with hyponyms, which denote narrower members within a category. Examples include “animal” as a general term, with hyponyms “dog” and “cat”; and “furniture” with hyponyms “table” and “sofa.” General terms are useful in organizing knowledge, creating taxonomies, thesauri, and knowledge graphs, and they facilitate information retrieval and query expansion by allowing broad searches to be refined downward.

In Estonian texts the plural genitive form “üldtermidest” is used when discussing sets of such terms, for example in databases or dictionaries that categorize entries under general terms. The distinction between general terms and specific terms can be fuzzy and context-dependent, which can complicate tasks such as automatic term extraction, lexical tagging, and ontology-building.

Related concepts include hypernym, hyponym, taxonomy, ontology, semantic field, and meronym. General terms play a central role in modeling knowledge structures, enabling hierarchical organization and cross-domain mapping in dictionaries, thesauri, and information systems. Understanding their usage helps in both linguistic analysis and practical applications like search, indexing, and data integration.