Glossary of scientific naming

Linnaeus' Species Plantarum (1753)

This is a list of terms and symbols used in scientific names for organisms, and in describing the names. For proper parts of the names themselves, see List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names. Many of the abbreviations are used with or without a stop.

Naming standards and taxonomic organizations and their codes and taxonomies

General terms

Types

Rank names

The main ranks are kingdom (regnum), phylum or division (divisio), class (classis), order (ordo), family (familia), genus and species. The ranks of section and series are also used in botany for groups within genera, while section is used in zoology for a division of an order. Further levels in the hierarchy can be made by the addition of prefixes such as sub-, super-, infra-, and so on.

Divisions such as "morph", "form", "variety", "strain", "breed", "cultivar", hybrid (nothospecies) and "landrace" are used to describe various sub-specific groups in different fields.

It is possible for a clade to be unranked, for example Psoroptidia (Yunker, 1955) and the SAR supergroup. Sometimes a rank is described as clade where the traditional hierarchy cannot accommodate it.

Latin descriptions of names or taxa

In zoology the English descriptions, such as "conserved name", for example, are acceptable and generally used. These descriptions can be classified between accepted names (nom. cons., nom. nov., nom. prot.) and unaccepted combinations for different reasons (nom. err., nom. illeg., nom. nud., nom. rej., nom. supp., nom. van.), with some cases in between regarding the use (nom. dub.: used but not fully accepted; nom. obl.: accepted but not fully used, so it yields precedence to a nom. prot). Note that not all of the following terms are recognized under all of the different Nomenclatural Codes.

Latin abbreviations

Common Latin abbreviations

Latin abbreviations relating to novelty

These abbreviations indicate taxonomic novelty—newly identified or newly classified taxa.

English abbreviations

Symbols

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Beentje, Henk J. (2010). The Kew Plant Glossary: An Illustrated Dictionary of Plant Terms. Illustrated by Juliet Williamson. Kew, England: Royal Botanic Gardens. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-1-84246-422-9. OCLC 464589004. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  2. ↑ Alvaro Mones (30 June 1989). "Nomen Dubium vs. Nomen Vanum". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 9 (2): 232–234. Bibcode:1989JVPal...9..232M. doi:10.1080/02724634.1989.10011757.
  3. ↑ Jacobson, Arthur Lee (1 February 1996). North American Landscape Trees. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. p. xx. ISBN 978-0-89815-823-6. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  4. ↑ Baranov, Andreĭ (1971). Basic Latin for Plant Taxonomists. Lehre [Liechtenstein]: J. Cramer. p. 144. ISBN 978-3-7682-0727-0. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  5. ↑ Theurillat, Jean-Paul; Willner, Wolfgang; Fernández-González, Federico; Bültmann, Helga; Čarni, Andraž; Gigante, Daniela; Mucina, Ladislav; Weber, Heinrich (30 August 2021). "International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature. 4th edition". Applied Vegetation Science. 24 (1) e12491. Bibcode:2021AppVS..24E2491T. doi:10.1111/avsc.12491. hdl:10578/35540 – via Wiley Online Library.
  6. ↑ On the use of the term nomen vanum in taxonomy. John Chorn and Kenneth N. Whetstone. Museum of Natural History, Kansas, Lawrence 66045. Journal of Paleontology vol 52 no. 2, March 1978
  7. ↑ "Glossary". InvertebrateIreland Online. National Museums of Northern Ireland. 2006. Retrieved 2 August 2024.