A narrative text explanation of the meaning of a concept that may exceed the maximum permitted length for a fully specificied name.

Notes

• Textual definitions are optional and are only provided for a limited number of concepts, where there is a requirement additional detail.
  
• Textual definitions are distributed as descriptions with a description type  900000000000550004 | Definition (core metadata concept)| .
• A file that conforms to the standard description file format is used to distribute textual definitions. However, descriptions in this file have a maximum permitted length of 4096 characters.

• Textual definitions should not be confused with the formal logic definitions of concepts expressed using OWL axioms or defining relationships.

Example

• One use of textual definitions is to indicate alignment of a SNOMED CT concept with a specific clinical definition of a condition.
  For example  11530004 | Brittle diabetes mellitus (disorder)|  has the following textual definition:
  • 11530004 | Diabetes mellitus in which there are frequent, clinically significant fluctuations in blood glucose levels both above and below levels expected to be achieved by available therapies.|

Related Links

• Term
• Fully specified name
• Release File Specification
  • 4.2.2 Description File Specification