Source: Schema.org v30.1 offline vocabulary. Official DefinedTerm definition.
What is DefinedTerm?
A word, name, acronym, phrase, etc. with a formal definition. Often used in the context of category or subject classification, glossaries or dictionaries, product or creative work types, etc. Use the name property for the term being defined, use termCode if the term has an alpha-numeric code allocated, use description to provide the definition of the term. Use the about property to specify what the term is about.
Example JSON-LD skeleton
This minimal example only identifies a Schema.org type. It is not a complete entity, a Google rich-result test, or a claim about a real business.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm"
}Full parent hierarchy
Each chain starts at a root type. Multiple paths are shown when Schema.org defines more than one parent. For very complex types, up to 256 paths are displayed; consult the official definition for the full graph.
- Thing → Intangible → DefinedTerm
Direct parents: Intangible
Child types (1)
Properties that accept DefinedTerm values (37)
| Property | On types | Description |
|---|---|---|
| assesses | CreativeWork or EducationEvent or LearningResource | The item being described is intended to assess the competency or learning outcome defined by the referenced term. |
| biologicalRole | BioChemEntity | A role played by the BioChemEntity within a biological context. |
| certificationIdentification | Certification | Identifier of a certification instance (as registered with an independent certification body). Typically this identifier can be used to consult and verify the certification instance. See also [gs1:certificationIdentification](https://www.gs1.org/voc/certificationIdentification). |
| chemicalRole | ChemicalSubstance or MolecularEntity | A role played by the BioChemEntity within a chemical context. |
| competencyRequired | EducationalOccupationalCredential or LearningResource | Knowledge, skill, ability or personal attribute that must be demonstrated by a person or other entity in order to do something such as earn an Educational Occupational Credential or understand a LearningResource. |
| creativeWorkStatus | CreativeWork | The status of a creative work in terms of its stage in a lifecycle. Example terms include Incomplete, Draft, Published, Obsolete. Some organizations define a set of terms for the stages of their publication lifecycle. |
| credentialCategory | Credential | The category or type of credential being described, for example "degree”, “certificate”, “badge”, or more specific term. |
| educationalLevel | CreativeWork or EducationEvent or EducationalOccupationalCredential or LearningResource | The level in terms of progression through an educational or training context. Examples of educational levels include 'beginner', 'intermediate' or 'advanced', and formal sets of level indicators. |
| educationalUse | CreativeWork or LearningResource | The purpose of a work in the context of education; for example, 'assignment', 'group work'. |
| errorCode | Error | Application or platform dependant error code. |
| expressedIn | Gene | Tissue, organ, biological sample, etc in which activity of this gene has been observed experimentally. For example brain, digestive system. |
| financialAidEligible | Course or EducationalOccupationalProgram | A financial aid type or program which students may use to pay for tuition or fees associated with the program. |
| genre | BroadcastChannel or CreativeWork or MusicGroup | Genre of the creative work, broadcast channel or group. |
| hasDefinedTerm | DefinedTermSet or Taxon | A Defined Term contained in this term set. |
| hasMolecularFunction | BioChemEntity | Molecular function performed by this BioChemEntity; please use PropertyValue if you want to include any evidence. |
| incentivizedItem | FinancialIncentive | The type or specific product(s) and/or service(s) being incentivized. <p>DefinedTermSets are used for product and service categories such as the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code:</p> { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "inDefinedTermSet": "https://www.unspsc.org/", "termCode": "261315XX", "name": "Photovoltaic module" } <p>For a specific product or service, use the Product type:</p> { "@type": "Product", "name": "Kenmore White 17" Microwave", } For multiple different incentivized items, use multiple [[DefinedTerm]] or [[Product]]. |
| industry | JobPosting | The industry associated with the job position. |
| isInvolvedInBiologicalProcess | BioChemEntity | Biological process this BioChemEntity is involved in; please use PropertyValue if you want to include any evidence. |
| isLocatedInSubcellularLocation | BioChemEntity | Subcellular location where this BioChemEntity is located; please use PropertyValue if you want to include any evidence. |
| jobTitle | Person | The job title of the person (for example, Financial Manager). |
| keywords | CreativeWork or Event or Organization or Place or Product | Keywords or tags used to describe some item. Multiple textual entries in a keywords list are typically delimited by commas, or by repeating the property. |
| learningResourceType | CreativeWork or LearningResource | The predominant type or kind characterizing the learning resource. For example, 'presentation', 'handout'. |
| measurementMethod | DataCatalog or DataDownload or Dataset or Observation or PropertyValue or StatisticalVariable | A subproperty of [[measurementTechnique]] that can be used for specifying specific methods, in particular via [[MeasurementMethodEnum]]. |
| measurementTechnique | DataCatalog or DataDownload or Dataset or Observation or PropertyValue or StatisticalVariable | A technique, method or technology used in an [[Observation]], [[StatisticalVariable]] or [[Dataset]] (or [[DataDownload]], [[DataCatalog]]), corresponding to the method used for measuring the corresponding variable(s) (for datasets, described using [[variableMeasured]]; for [[Observation]], a [[StatisticalVariable]]). Often but not necessarily each [[variableMeasured]] will have an explicit representation as (or mapping to) an property such as those defined in Schema.org, or other RDF vocabularies and "knowledge graphs". In that case the subproperty of [[variableMeasured]] called [[measuredProperty]] is applicable. The [[measurementTechnique]] property helps when extra clarification is needed about how a [[measuredProperty]] was measured. This is oriented towards scientific and scholarly dataset publication but may have broader applicability; it is not intended as a full representation of measurement, but can often serve as a high level summary for dataset discovery. For example, if [[variableMeasured]] is: molecule concentration, [[measurementTechnique]] could be: "mass spectrometry" or "nmr spectroscopy" or "colorimetry" or "immunofluorescence". If the [[variableMeasured]] is "depression rating", the [[measurementTechnique]] could be "Zung Scale" or "HAM-D" or "Beck Depression Inventory". If there are several [[variableMeasured]] properties recorded for some given data object, use a [[PropertyValue]] for each [[variableMeasured]] and attach the corresponding [[measurementTechnique]]. The value can also be from an enumeration, organized as a [[MeasurementMethodEnum]]. |
| pattern | CreativeWork or Product | A pattern that something has, for example 'polka dot', 'striped', 'Canadian flag'. Values are typically expressed as text, although links to controlled value schemes are also supported. |
| physicalRequirement | JobPosting | A description of the types of physical activity associated with the job. Defined terms such as those in O*net may be used, but note that there is no way to specify the level of ability as well as its nature when using a defined term. |
| potentialUse | ChemicalSubstance or MolecularEntity | Intended use of the BioChemEntity by humans. |
| programType | EducationalOccupationalProgram | The type of educational or occupational program. For example, classroom, internship, alternance, etc. |
| pronouns | Person | A short string listing or describing pronouns for a person. Typically the person concerned is the best authority as pronouns are a critical part of personal identity and expression. Publishers and consumers of this information are reminded to treat this data responsibly, take country-specific laws related to gender expression into account, and be wary of out-of-date data and drawing unwarranted inferences about the person being described. In English, formulations such as "they/them", "she/her", and "he/him" are commonly used online and can also be used here. We do not intend to enumerate all possible micro-syntaxes in all languages. More structured and well-defined external values for pronouns can be referenced using the [[StructuredValue]] or [[DefinedTerm]] values. |
| sensoryRequirement | JobPosting | A description of any sensory requirements and levels necessary to function on the job, including hearing and vision. Defined terms such as those in O*net may be used, but note that there is no way to specify the level of ability as well as its nature when using a defined term. |
| size | CreativeWork or Product | A standardized size of a product or creative work, specified either through a simple textual string (for example 'XL', '32Wx34L'), a QuantitativeValue with a unitCode, or a comprehensive and structured [[SizeSpecification]]; in other cases, the [[width]], [[height]], [[depth]] and [[weight]] properties may be more applicable. |
| skills | JobPosting or Occupation or Organization or Person | A statement of knowledge, skill, ability, task or any other assertion expressing a competency that is either claimed by a person, an organization or desired or required to fulfill a role or to work in an occupation. |
| substanceOfConcern | Product | A substance of concern (SoC) contained within the product, typically based on regulatory lists like REACH or RoHS. |
| taxonomicRange | BioChemEntity | The taxonomic grouping of the organism that expresses, encodes, or in some way related to the BioChemEntity. |
| teaches | CreativeWork or EducationEvent or LearningResource | The item being described is intended to help a person learn the competency or learning outcome defined by the referenced term. |
| valueReference | PropertyValue or QualitativeValue or QuantitativeValue | A secondary value that provides additional information on the original value, e.g. a reference temperature or a type of measurement. |
| variesBy | ProductGroup | Indicates the property or properties by which the variants in a [[ProductGroup]] vary, e.g. their size, color etc. Schema.org properties can be referenced by their short name e.g. "color"; terms defined elsewhere can be referenced with their URIs. Variant properties can be provided using [[PropertyValue]] instead of plain [[Text]], to allow specification of the values available for a variant property. |
Properties usable on DefinedTerm (16)
This list includes properties whose domainIncludes names DefinedTerm or one of its ancestors. DomainIncludes is advisory; it is not an exhaustive set of permitted properties.
| Property | Expected value types | Description |
|---|---|---|
| about | Thing | The subject matter of an object. |
| additionalType | Text, URL | An additional type for the item, typically used for adding more specific types from external vocabularies in microdata syntax. This is a relationship between something and a class that the thing is in. Typically the value is a URI-identified RDF class, and in this case corresponds to the use of rdf:type in RDF. Text values can be used sparingly, for cases where useful information can be added without their being an appropriate schema to reference. In the case of text values, the class label should follow the schema.org <a href="https://schema.org/docs/styleguide.html">style guide</a>. |
| alternateName | Text | An alias for the item. |
| description | Text, TextObject | A description of the item. |
| disambiguatingDescription | Text | A sub property of description. A short description of the item used to disambiguate from other, similar items. Information from other properties (in particular, name) may be necessary for the description to be useful for disambiguation. |
| identifier | PropertyValue, Text, URL | The identifier property represents any kind of identifier for any kind of [[Thing]], such as ISBNs, GTIN codes, UUIDs etc. Schema.org provides dedicated properties for representing many of these, either as textual strings or as URL (URI) links. See [background notes](/docs/datamodel.html#identifierBg) for more details. |
| image | ImageObject, URL | An image of the item. This can be a [[URL]] or a fully described [[ImageObject]]. |
| inDefinedTermSet | DefinedTermSet, URL | A [[DefinedTermSet]] that contains this term. |
| mainEntityOfPage | CreativeWork, URL | Indicates a page (or other CreativeWork) for which this thing is the main entity being described. See [background notes](/docs/datamodel.html#mainEntityBackground) for details. |
| name | Text | The name of the item. |
| owner | Organization, Person | A person or organization who owns this Thing. |
| potentialAction | Action | Indicates a potential Action, which describes an idealized action in which this thing would play an 'object' role. |
| sameAs | URL | URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item's identity. E.g. the URL of the item's Wikipedia page, Wikidata entry, or official website. |
| subjectOf | CreativeWork, Event | A CreativeWork or Event about this Thing. |
| termCode | Text | A code that identifies this [[DefinedTerm]] within a [[DefinedTermSet]]. |
| url | URL | URL of the item. |
Schema.org vs Google
This type's presence in Schema.org is not a Google feature approval. Check our dated Google status snapshot and Google's official Rich Results Test separately.