subtype

subtype

A specialization of a concept, sharing all the definitional attributes of that concept, but with at least one additional distinguishing feature

Notes

• Subtypes are transitive, that is if A is a subtype of B and B is a subtype of C, then A is also a subtype of C.

• The term subtype is synonymous with subtype descendant. However, it may be helpful to use the term subtype descendant to emphasize inclusion of all subtypes not just subtype children.

  • Note that the distinguishing features may or may not be represented in the concept definition.

Example

Examples

• 87628006 | Bacterial infectious disease| is a subtype of 40733004 | Infectious disease| .

• 10001005 | Bacterial sepsis| and 197171003 | Bacterial peritonitis| are subtypes of 87628006 | Bacterial infectious disease| (and thus also subtypes of 40733004 | Infectious disease| ).

Disambiguation

Not to be confused with:

• The term subtype is sometimes used incorrectly to refer only to concepts that are directly related to a parent concept via a single | is a| relationship. The correct term for a directly related subtype concept is subtype child.

Related Links

• Subtype

  • subtype child

  • subtype children

  • subtype classification

  • subtype descendant

  • subtype hierarchy

  • subtype relationship

  • subtype test

• Supertype

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