Overview
SIST ISO 704:2023 - Terminology work: Principles and methods defines the foundational principles and methods for creating, analysing and managing terminologies across scientific, technological, industrial, legal, administrative and other fields. The standard clarifies the relationships between objects, concepts, definitions and designations, and sets out general principles for the formation of terms and proper names and the writing of definitions. It is aligned with ISO terminology standards and replaces the previous edition (ISO 704:2009).
Key topics and technical content
SIST ISO 704:2023 addresses core terminological activities and contains guidance on:
- Concepts and concept systems: types of concepts, characteristics (intension/extension), concept relations (hierarchical and associative) and visualization of concept systems.
- Definitions: principles for intensional and extensional definitions, writing clear definitions, detecting deficient (circular/inaccurate/negative) definitions, and indicating domain or source information.
- Designations: types of designations including terms, appellations, proper names and symbols; relations between designations and concepts (mononymy, synonymy, polysemy, equivalence, antonymy).
- Term formation: principles and methods for creating terms and proper names, and guidance on acceptability and harmonization.
- Supplementary material: use of contexts, encyclopaedic descriptions, examples and explanatory notes to support definitions.
- Standards linkage: references and harmonization with related ISO documents (e.g., ISO 1087 concept vocabulary and ISO 24156-1 concept models).
Note: SIST ISO 704:2023 does not prescribe the presentation format of terminological entries in International Standards (see ISO 10241-1 and ISO 10241-2 for presentation rules).
Practical applications and users
This standard is practical for professionals and organizations involved in:
- Terminology management and lexicography
- Technical and standards committees developing domain vocabularies
- Knowledge engineers and ontology developers creating concept models
- Translators, technical writers and editors ensuring consistent term use
- Regulatory, legal and administrative bodies compiling precise term lists
- R&D and industry teams standardizing product, process and safety terminology
Practical benefits include improved clarity of technical communication, consistent term formation, better interoperability of data and documentation, and a reliable basis for multilingual terminology management.
Related standards
- ISO 1087 - Vocabulary of terminology
- ISO 24156-1 - Concept modeling (introduced into the latest edition)
- ISO 10241-1 / ISO 10241-2 - Presentation rules for terminological entries in International Standards
Using SIST ISO 704:2023 ensures terminological work follows internationally recognized principles and methods, supporting clearer definitions, harmonized terminology and better knowledge exchange across disciplines.
