ISO 860:2007

Overview

ISO 860:2007 - "Terminology work - Harmonization of concepts and terms" defines a methodological approach to terminology harmonization. It guides the harmonization of concepts, concept systems, definitions and terms at national or international levels, in both monolingual and multilingual contexts. The standard explains why harmonization is necessary (to reduce ambiguity and improve communication) and outlines procedures from feasibility studies through maintenance of harmonized concept systems.

Key Topics

• Concept harmonization: Establishing correspondence between closely related or overlapping concepts that differ for professional, technical, cultural or linguistic reasons.
• Concept system harmonization: Aligning hierarchical or networked concept systems to identify overlaps, divergence points and common subdivision criteria.
• Feasibility study and subject‑field analysis: Assessing whether harmonization is practical by comparing key concepts and essential characteristics across sources.
• Harmonization procedure: Steps for selecting concepts, comparing concept systems, analysing definitions by characteristics (not by designations), and deciding whether to produce a single harmonized concept system or adapt source systems.
• Definition harmonization: Producing intensional definitions that reflect a concept’s position in the harmonized system.
• Term harmonization: Selecting designations, establishing equivalents across languages, managing synonyms and term variants within a language, and planning terminology maintenance.
• Maintenance and display: Options for retaining integrated concept systems for control, or disaggregating/adapting displays for specific applications.

Practical Applications

ISO 860 is used to:

• Improve clarity and interoperability in standards development and technical documentation.
• Inform multilingual terminology projects for localization, translation and international policy work.
• Support terminologists, lexicographers, subject‑matter experts, standard developers, technical writers and localization teams in selecting consistent terms and harmonized definitions.
• Reduce miscommunication in regulated industries, international organizations and multilingual information systems by providing a structured method to reconcile differing concept definitions.

Benefits include clearer cross‑language equivalence, fewer ambiguous designations, and more reliable terminological resources for standardization, documentation and communication.

Related Standards

• ISO 704:2000 - Terminology work - Principles and methods
• ISO 1087‑1:2000 - Terminology work - Vocabulary - Part 1: Theory and application
• ISO 10241:1992 - International terminology standards - Preparation and layout (Prepared by ISO/TC 37 - Terminology and other language and content resources)

Keywords: ISO 860, terminology harmonization, concept harmonization, harmonization of concepts and terms, multilingual terminology, definition harmonization, term equivalence.