taxonomy

UK: /tækˈsɒnəmi/ US: /tækˈsɑnəmi/ ,(tak son′ə mē)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

tax•on•o•my /tækˈsɑnəmi/   n. 

1. Biology the science of naming things and classifying them in different groups:
   [uncountable] language taxonomy.
   [countable] taxonomies for certain microscopic organisms.

tax•o•nom•ic /ˌtæksəˈnɑmɪk/  tax•o•nom•i•cal, adj. See -nom-¹.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

tax•on•o•my  (tak son′ə mē), n. 

1. Biology the science or technique of classification.
2. Biology the science dealing with the description, identification, naming, and classification of organisms.

• 1805–15; French taxonomie. See taxo-, -nomy

tax•o•nom•ic  (tak′sə nom′ik), tax′o•nom′i•cal, adj.  tax′o•nom′i•cal•ly, adv. 
tax•on′o•mist, tax•on′o•mer, n. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

taxonomy / tækˈsɒnəmɪ/ noun

1. the branch of biology concerned with the classification of organisms into groups based on similarities of structure, origin, etc
2. the science or practice of classification

Etymology: 19th Century: from French taxonomie, from Greek taxis order + -nomy

taxonomic / ˌtæksəˈnɒmɪk/, ˌtaxoˈnomical adjective

ˌtaxoˈnomically adverb

taxˈonomist, taxˈonomer noun