Alternate Descriptor (ALT):

A variant form of a descriptor ( i.e, preferred term), usually a singular form or a different part of speech (adjective, gerund, or possessive) than the descriptor.

Associative Relationship:

This relationship covers associations between concepts that are neither equivalent nor hierarchical. The terms are semantically or conceptually associated and may suggest additional terms for use in indexing or retrieval.

Biographic string:

[ULAN] The artist or architect's roles, nationality, locus of activity, and life dates or dates of activity, used with the preferred name to identify an artist in displays.

Bound Term:

[AAT] A descriptor consisting of multiple words that together represent a single concept.

British English Alternate Descriptor (UKALT):

[AAT] An alternate descriptor for a British English descriptor.

British English Descriptor (UK):

[AAT] The British English equivalent of the descriptor.

Broader Term (BT):

A concept to which another concept is subordinate in a hierarchy. Also known as the "parent."

Compound Term:

A term consisting of more than one word, where the words together represent a single concept.

Coordinates:

[TGN] The latitude and longitude of the place.

Descriptor:

Also called the "preferred term," it is the term chosen to represent the concept in displays in a thesaurus. In the Getty Vocabularies, it is generally the term/name most often used to refer to the concept in scholarly literature.

Display dates:

Dates expressed as short notes describing when the name/term was used.

Entry Form:

The name or term used to represent the concept in lists or indexes; generally the same term that is the "descriptor" or "preferred term."

Equivalence Relationship:

The relationship between synonyms is an equivalence relationship, in which all terms refer to the same concept.

Facet:

A mutually exclusive category of information in a hierarchy. The AAT has seven facets.

Guide Term:

A term or phrase used to structure the hierarchies in thesauri. AAT Guide Terms are displayed in angle brackets < > and are typically not used in indexing.

Hierarchical Position:

Hierarchical relationships that generally are denoted by indention. Thus, Firenze is located in the province of Firenze, which is in the Toscana region, which is in Italia, a nation in Europe.

Hierarchical Relationship:

This basic relationship is the primary feature that distinguishes a thesaurus from an unstructured list of terms. In the AAT there are genus/species relationships where the broader terms represent a class (genus), and the narrower terms refer to its members. In TGN, there are whole/part relationships. In ULAN there are occasionally whole/part relationships.

Hierarchy:

A homogeneous class of concepts with part/whole or genus/species relationships, typically displayed by using the descriptor (preferred term), additional identifying information (such as "place type" in TGN), and indention to represent the relationships.

Homographs:

Words that have the same spelling, but different meanings and origins. In the AAT, homographs are distinguished by qualifiers in parentheses.

Keyword:

A name element or word used in a search expression. For example, for the place name "Sena Julia," "Sena" is one keyword and "Julia" is another.

Narrower Term (NT):

A concept that is subordinate to another concept in a hierarchy. Also known as a "child."

Place Types:

[TGN] A place type is a term that characterizes a significant aspect of the place, including its function (e.g. regional capital), size (e.g. city), or physical characteristics.

Polyhierarchical:

Thesauri are polyhierarchical when a concept may have multiple broader contexts (or "parents").

Preferred name:

The term or name flagged as "preferred" or the "descriptor" to represent the name flagged as "preferred" or the "descriptor" to represent the concept in displays.

Project acronym:

Acronym or initials of the projects that contributed data to Getty Vocabularies.

Project-preferred name:

A name form that is preferred by one of the projects contributing to the Getty Vocabulary. A project-preferred name may or may not correspond to the overall preferred form or "descriptor."

Qualifier:

[AAT] The qualifier distinguishes a descriptor from otherwise identical descriptors (homographs) that have different meanings. A qualifier is considered part of a descriptor, but is separated from it by parentheses.

Related Term (RT):

A concept that is associatively but not hierarchically linked to another descriptor in a thesaurus.

Search expression:

A keyword or combination of keywords, or a phrase used to search a database.

Semantic Network:

The semantic network of a thesaurus is made up of three types of relationships among terms and concepts: the hierarchical, the equivalence, and the associative. This network can be utilized as a searching aid in retrieval.

Scope Note (SN):

An instructional and/or definitional statement that clarifies the usage or meaning of the concept.

Sibling:

[AAT] A concept that shares the same broader term (one level higher) as other concepts. For example, all the towns in Bartholomew County are siblings.

Sources:

Bibliographic sources of the name/term or other information in a vocabulaary record.

Synonymous Relationship:

This means the same as "Equivalence Relationship," where all the terms/names refer to the same concept.

Thesaurus:

A compilation of terms linked in synonymous, hierarchical, and associative relationships that are clearly displayed and employed reciprocally.

Use For (UF):

Synonym, spelling variant, or form variant of the descriptor; also called a lead-in term, it is a "non-preferred" term.

Variant name:

Refers generally to all terms that refer to the same concept, including "use fors" and "Alternate descriptors."