A Multi-Axial Mindset for Ontology Design Lessons from Wikidata's Polyhierarchical Structure

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Auteurs principaux: Doğan, Ege Atacan, Patel-Schneider, Peter F.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Doğan, Ege Atacan
Patel-Schneider, Peter F.
author_facet Doğan, Ege Atacan
Patel-Schneider, Peter F.
contents Traditional ontology design emphasizes disjoint and exhaustive top-level distinctions such as continuant vs. occurrent, abstract vs. concrete, or type vs. instance. These distinctions are used to structure unified hierarchies where every entity is classified under a single upper-level category. Wikidata, by contrast, does not enforce a singular foundational taxonomy. Instead, it accommodates multiple classification axes simultaneously under the shared root class entity. This paper analyzes the structural implications of Wikidata's polyhierarchical and multi-axial design. The Wikidata architecture enables a scalable and modular approach to ontology construction, especially suited to collaborative and evolving knowledge graphs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_12260
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Multi-Axial Mindset for Ontology Design Lessons from Wikidata's Polyhierarchical Structure
Doğan, Ege Atacan
Patel-Schneider, Peter F.
Artificial Intelligence
Databases
Traditional ontology design emphasizes disjoint and exhaustive top-level distinctions such as continuant vs. occurrent, abstract vs. concrete, or type vs. instance. These distinctions are used to structure unified hierarchies where every entity is classified under a single upper-level category. Wikidata, by contrast, does not enforce a singular foundational taxonomy. Instead, it accommodates multiple classification axes simultaneously under the shared root class entity. This paper analyzes the structural implications of Wikidata's polyhierarchical and multi-axial design. The Wikidata architecture enables a scalable and modular approach to ontology construction, especially suited to collaborative and evolving knowledge graphs.
title A Multi-Axial Mindset for Ontology Design Lessons from Wikidata's Polyhierarchical Structure
topic Artificial Intelligence
Databases
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.12260