Taxonomy (biology)

In biology, taxonomy (from Ancient Greek τάξις (taxis) 'arrangement' and -νομία (-nomia) 'method') is the scientific study of naming, defining (circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon), and these groups are given a taxonomic rank; groups of a given rank can be aggregated to form a more inclusive group of higher rank, thus creating a taxonomic hierarchy. The principal ranks in modern use are domain, kingdom, phylum (division is sometimes used in botany in place of phylum), class, order, family, genus, and species.

Extends: Taxonomy (biology), [Biological nomenclature](https://wikipedia.org.ai/Biological nomenclature), [Biological classification](https://wikipedia.org.ai/Biological classification), [Neo-Latin terminology](https://wikipedia.org.ai/Neo-Latin terminology)