nomenclature

/ˌnoʊmənˈkleɪtʃər/

/ˈnʌʊmɪnkleɪtʃə/

Other forms: nomenclatures

When adjusting to a new job, you may have trouble understanding the nomenclature, or system of naming things, in the workplace. Just remember: they’re "guests," not "customers," and they push a "purchase buggy," not a "shopping cart."

The nomen- in nomenclature comes from the Latin word for name. Nomenclature is a system for giving names to things within a particular profession or field. For instance, you may have heard of binomial nomenclature in biology class. It applies to the way of referring to living things by two names, like calling humans Homo sapiens. Biologists all follow the same nomenclature so that they are easily understood by each other.

Definitions of nomenclature

1. noun

   a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline
   “biological nomenclature”

   synonyms: language, terminology

   types:

   markup language

   a set of symbols and rules for their use when doing a markup of a document

   toponomy, toponymy

   the nomenclature of regional anatomy

   SGML, standard generalized markup language

   (computer science) a standardized language for the descriptive markup of documents; a set of rules for using whatever markup vocabulary is adopted

   HTML, hypertext mark-up language, hypertext markup language

   a set of tags and rules (conforming to SGML) for using them in developing hypertext documents

   type of:

   word

   a unit of language that native speakers can identify