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Ontology

A formal OWL/RDF knowledge representation (e.g. FOAF, Schema.org)

39 standards

BBC Ontologies

Fourteen interlinked RDF ontologies powering linked data across BBC Sport, News, Music, and more.

Ontology active BBC Est. 2012

Bibliographic Ontology

(BIBO)

An OWL ontology for modeling citations, documents, and scholarly references on the Semantic Web.

Ontology active Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Updated November 4, 2009

Bibliographic Reference Ontology

(BiRO)

An OWL ontology for describing bibliographic references and their ordered collections within citing works.

Ontology active SPAR Ontologies Est. 2011

Chemical Entities of Biological Interest

(ChEBI)

An ontology classifying small chemical compounds by structure, role, and biological activity.

Ontology active European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) Est. 2004

Citation Typing Ontology

(CiTO)

An ontology that captures the rhetorical and factual reasons one publication cites another.

Ontology active SPAR Ontologies Updated February 16, 2018

Data Catalog Vocabulary

(DCAT)

A W3C vocabulary for describing datasets and data services in federated catalogs on the web.

Ontology active World Wide Web Consortium Updated August 22, 2024

Data Privacy Vocabulary

(DPV)

Provides structured concepts for describing personal data processing, privacy rights, and legal bases.

Ontology active W3C Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group Updated February 25, 2026

Data Quality Vocabulary

(DQV)

Provides an RDF vocabulary for describing and assessing data quality dimensions, metrics, and certificates.

Ontology active World Wide Web Consortium Updated December 15, 2016

DBpedia Ontology

(DBO)

A cross-domain ontology derived from Wikipedia infoboxes, covering 768 classes and 3,000 properties.

Ontology active DBpedia Association Updated July 23, 2021

Description of a Project

(DOAP)

An RDF vocabulary for machine-readable descriptions of open-source software projects.

Ontology active Edd Wilder-James Est. 2004

FaBiO, the FRBR-aligned Bibliographic Ontology

(FaBiO)

An ontology for publishable entities aligned with the Work-Expression-Manifestation-Item model.

Ontology active SPAR Ontologies Updated February 19, 2019

FOAF Vocabulary Specification

(FOAF)

A pioneering Semantic Web ontology for describing people, their relationships, and online accounts.

Ontology active FOAF Project Updated January 14, 2014

Gene Ontology

(GO)

The most widely used ontology for annotating gene function across all living species.

Ontology active Gene Ontology Consortium Est. 1998

GeoNames Ontology

Provides linked data URIs and semantic descriptions for over 11 million global place names.

Ontology active GeoNames Updated July 1, 2021

GeoSPARQL

(GeoSPARQL)

Adds spatial query functions and a geometry ontology to SPARQL for the Semantic Web.

Ontology active Open Geospatial Consortium Updated January 1, 2024

GoodRelations Ontology

(GR)

Describes products, services, prices, and business details as structured linked data for e-commerce on the web.

Ontology active Martin Hepp Updated October 1, 2011

Human Phenotype Ontology

(HPO)

A controlled vocabulary of over 18,000 clinical features for rare disease diagnosis and genomics.

Ontology active Monarch Initiative / Jackson Laboratory Est. 2008

Hydra Core Vocabulary

(Hydra)

Describes hypermedia-driven Web APIs in machine-readable form, enabling clients to discover operations at runtime.

Ontology active Hydra W3C Community Group Est. 2013

Lexicon Model for Ontologies (OntoLex-Lemon)

(OntoLex)

Represents lexicographic and linguistic data as RDF, linking lexical entries to ontology concepts and meanings.

Ontology active W3C Ontology-Lexica Community Group Updated May 10, 2016

Music Ontology

(MO)

An OWL ontology modeling the full lifecycle of music from composition to recording to release.

Ontology active Music Ontology Project Updated July 22, 2013

Open Digital Rights Language

(ODRL)

Expresses machine-readable policies for permissions, prohibitions, and obligations over digital content.

Ontology active World Wide Web Consortium Updated February 15, 2018

PROV: Provenance Data Model and Supporting Definitions

(PROV)

Models the provenance of data and things by tracking entities, activities, and the agents responsible.

Ontology active World Wide Web Consortium Updated April 30, 2013

Provenance, Authoring and Versioning Ontology

(PAV)

Tracks provenance, authorship, curation, and version history of resources using lightweight RDF properties.

Ontology active PAV Community Updated August 28, 2014

Quantities, Units, Dimensions and Types Ontology

(QUDT)

An ontology for quantities, units of measurement, and dimensions used across science and engineering.

Ontology active QUDT.org Updated October 26, 2024

RDF Data Cube Vocabulary

Publishes multi-dimensional statistical and aggregate data as linked data using RDF and SDMX concepts.

Ontology active World Wide Web Consortium Updated January 16, 2014