A specialization of a concept, sharing all the definitional attributes of that concept, but with at least one additional distinguishing feature1 .
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.
Example
- 87628006 | Bacterial infectious disease (disorder)| is a subtype of 40733004 | Infectious disease (disorder)| .
- 10001005 | Bacterial sepsis (disorder)| and 197171003 | Bacterial peritonitis (disorder)| are subtypes of 87628006 | Bacterial infectious disease (disorder)| (and thus also subtypes of 40733004 | Infectious disease (disorder)| ).
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 116680003 | is a| relationship. The correct term for a directly related subtype concept is subtype child.
Related Links
- Subtype
- Supertype
Ref | Notes |
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1 |
Note that the distinguishing features may or may not be represented in the concept definition of the subtype. |
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