Designations

A designation is a name under which a managed term is known. Designations follow an inheritance hierarchy based on ISO 10241-1 and the Glossarist concept model. See the Designation entity definition for the authoritative field list.

Designations form a MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) hierarchy:

Type	Extends	Description
expression	Base	A word or phrase used as a designation
abbreviation	Expression	A shortened form (acronym, initialism, or truncation)
symbol	Base	A non-letter symbol representing a concept
letter_symbol	Symbol	A single letter used as a symbol
graphical_symbol	Symbol	An iconic or graphical symbol
prefix	Base	A prefix that attaches before a designation
suffix	Base	A suffix that attaches after a designation

Base properties (common to all types)

Every designation type inherits these fields from the Designation base:

Field	Type	Card.	Standard	Description
designation	string	1..1	—	The term text or symbol
normative_status	normativeStatus	0..1	—	preferred, admitted, deprecated, or superseded
term_type	termType	0..1	ISO 12620	Classification of the designation's term type
related	DesignationRelationship[]	0..*	ISO 10241-1	Designation-level relationships (e.g. abbreviated_form_for)
sources	ConceptSource[]	0..*	ISO 10241-1 §6.8	Bibliographic sources
pronunciation	Pronunciation[]	0..*	—	Pronunciation entries
language	string	0..1	ISO 639	Language of this designation
script	string	0..1	ISO 15924	Script of the designation text (e.g. Latn, Cyrl)
system	string	0..1	ISO 24229	Conversion system code
international	boolean	0..1	—	Whether used internationally
absent	boolean	0..1	—	Whether intentionally absent in this language
register	string	0..1	—	Register information

Expression-specific fields

Expression designations add:

Field	Type	Card.	Description
grammar_info	GrammarInfo[]	0..*	Grammatical information

Abbreviation-specific fields

Abbreviation designations (extends Expression) add:

Field	Type	Card.	Description
is_acronym	boolean	0..1	Whether this is an acronym
is_initialism	boolean	0..1	Whether this is an initialism
is_truncation	boolean	0..1	Whether this is a truncation

Symbol-specific fields

Symbol designations add:

Field	Type	Card.	Description
text	string	0..1	Text representation of the symbol

Graphical symbols add:

Field	Type	Card.	Description
image	anyURI	0..1	Image URI for the graphical symbol

Pronunciation

Each Pronunciation entry has:

Field	Type	Card.	Standard	Description
content	string	1..1	—	The pronunciation text
language	string	0..1	ISO 639	Language/dialect being pronounced (3-letter code)
script	string	0..1	ISO 15924	Script of the pronunciation text (4-letter code)
country	string	0..1	ISO 3166-1	Country variant (2-letter code)
system	string	0..1	ISO 24229	Conversion system code (e.g. IPA, Var:jpn-Hrkt:Latn:Hepburn-1886)

Grammar Information

Each GrammarInfo entry has:

Field	Type	Card.	Description
gender	gender	0..*	Grammatical gender
number	number	0..*	Grammatical number
part_of_speech	string	0..1	Part of speech

Designation Relationships

Designation-level relationships link designations of the same concept to each other (e.g. an abbreviation to its full form). They are distinct from concept-level RelatedConcept links, which connect entire concepts by identifier.

Field	Type	Card.	Description
type	string (enum)	1..1	abbreviated_form_for or short_form_for
content	string	0..1	Text describing the relationship
target	string	0..1	The target designation text

Example

terms:
  - type: expression
    designation: Light Emitting Diode
    normative_status: preferred
  - type: abbreviation
    designation: LED
    normative_status: admitted
    acronym: true
    related:
      - type: abbreviated_form_for
        target: Light Emitting Diode

See the YAML Schema Reference for the complete JSON Schema definitions, the Entity Field Reference for all entity types, and the Standards compliance reference for ISO standard mappings.