The Glossarist Concept Model

A self-contained information model for terminology management, aligned with ISO 10241-1, 704, 30042, 12620, and 25964 — designed to handle everything from simple glossaries to complex multilingual concept systems, with interoperability across multiple technology ecosystems.

—Entity Types

—Properties

—Validation Shapes

—Relationship Types

—Designation Types

Core entities

ManagedConcept

The top-level entity. Holds a UUID, lifecycle status, domain references, and maps language codes to LocalizedConcept instances.

statuslocalized_conceptsrelateddomainsdates

LocalizedConcept

Per-language realization of a concept. Each language gets its own definition, designations, notes, examples, and classification.

designationsdefinitionnotesexampleslanguage_code

Designations

Designation types in a MECE hierarchy — expressions, abbreviations, symbols (letter and graphical), prefixes, and suffixes.

expressionabbreviationsymbolletter_symbolgraphical_symbolprefixsuffix

Relationships

Typed semantic links spanning 4 ISO standards — hierarchical, partitive, associative, equivalence, mapping, and spatiotemporal.

broader/narrowergeneric/partitiveexact_matchdeprecatesand more

Sources

Multi-level provenance tracking — authoritative and lineage sources with status tracking (identical, modified, restyled, generalisation).

authoritativelineagestatusoriginmodification

Formal Ontology

The concept model is formally expressed as an OWL ontology with SHACL validation shapes. Interoperates with SKOS, SKOS-XL, ISO 25964, PROV-O, and Dublin Core for linked data integration.

owl:Classsh:Shapeskos:Conceptskosxl:Label

How concepts work

Every Glossarist concept is a ManagedConcept — a language-independent entity that groups per-language LocalizedConcept instances. Each localization carries its own definitions, designations, notes, examples, and source references.

The model separates what a concept is (its identity, lifecycle, relationships) from how it is expressed (terms, abbreviations, symbols in different languages). This separation lets you maintain concept-level relationships (broader, narrower, equivalent) independently of language-specific terminology.

Authoring concepts in YAML

Concepts are authored in structured YAML files. The V3 schema consolidates all localizations into a single file per concept:

# concepts/3.1.1.1.yaml
termid: "3.1.1.1"
termid_uuid: "a1b2c3d4-..."
status: valid

eng:
  terms:
    - type: expression
      designation: "entity"
      normative_status: preferred
  definition:
    - content: "A concrete or abstract thing that exists, has existed, or can exist"
  notes:
    - "This includes objects, concepts, and relationships"
  sources:
    - type: authoritative
      origin: "ISO 19107:2003, 4.5"
      status: identical

fra:
  terms:
    - type: expression
      designation: "entité"
      normative_status: preferred
  definition:
    - content: "chose concrète ou abstraite qui existe, a existé ou peut exister"
  sources:
    - type: authoritative
      origin: "ISO 19107:2003, 4.5"
      status: identical

See the YAML Schema Reference for complete field documentation and enum values, or the Entity Field Reference for per-entity field lists with types and cardinality.

Standards alignment

Every entity in the Glossarist model maps to established international standards:

Standard	Role in Glossarist
ISO 10241-1	Terminology entries in standardized vocabularies — concept structure, designations, sources
ISO 704	Principles and methods — concept systems, definitions, term formation rules
ISO 30042 / TBX	Terminology markup framework — data exchange format
ISO 12620	Data category registry — term type classifications
ISO 25964	Thesauri — hierarchical and mapping relationships (BTG/NTG, BTP/NTP, BTI/NTI)
OWL 2 / SHACL	Formal model definition — the concept model is expressed as an OWL ontology with SHACL shapes for validation and Semantic Web interoperability
SKOS / SKOS-XL	Knowledge organization — concept schemes and reified labels for linked data mapping

Processing with code

JavaScript (glossarist-js)

import { loadGcr, readConcepts } from 'glossarist';

const concepts = readConcepts('./geolexica-v2/');
concepts.forEach(c => {
  console.log(c.id, c.primaryDesignation('eng'));
});

Ruby (glossarist-ruby)

require 'glossarist'

collection = Glossarist::ManagedConceptCollection.new
collection.from_yaml('./concepts/')

concept = collection['3.1.1.1']
puts concept.localizations['eng'].definition

Reference sections

• Concepts — ManagedConcept, LocalizedConcept, concept lifecycle, collections
• Designations — Designation type hierarchy, pronunciation, base properties
• Relationships — Typed relationship kinds across 4 standards
• Sources — Authoritative source hierarchy and provenance
• Term Types — ISO 12620 term type classifications
• YAML Schemas — V2 and V3 schema overview and examples
• YAML Schema Browser — Interactive JSON Schema definitions
• Entity Field Reference — Per-entity field reference with types and cardinality
• Ontology Browser — Interactive OWL ontology and SHACL shape browser