schema

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an organized pattern, framework, or abstract form that can be applied to particular cases

   The rule was presented as a schema from which many individual inferences could be formed.

2. 2
   noun

   in psychology, a mental structure used to organize knowledge and interpret experience

   A familiar restaurant schema helps diners anticipate the usual sequence of events.

3. 3
   noun

   a formal specification of the structure, fields, types, and relationships in a database or other body of data

   The database schema requires every book record to have a unique identifier.

Borrowed through Latin schema from Greek skhema ("form, shape, figure"), from ekhein ("to have, hold"). It is a learned doublet of scheme. Psychology, logic, and computing each specialized the underlying sense of an organizing form.

Topics