Common Core Ontologies (CCO)¶
The Common Core Ontologies (CCO) are a suite of eleven interconnected mid-level ontologies that provide logically well-defined generic terms and relations applicable across many domains of interest [1] [2]. CCO extends the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), an upper-level ontology, and is designed to support semantic interoperability, data integration, and reusable domain ontology development [1].
CCO is built on formal semantic principles, ensuring that its concepts are unambiguous, semantically consistent, and suitable for computational reasoning [2]. The ontology suite covers foundational concepts including objects, processes, qualities, information entities, locations, units of measure, agents, artifacts, facilities, and relations between entities [1] [2]. Its terms are intended to be reused and extended by domain-specific ontologies while preserving compatibility with other CCO- and BFO-based systems [1].
The ontologies are documented with formal definitions, examples, and design patterns that support both human understanding and automated reasoning [2]. CCO can be used in enterprise information systems, knowledge graph construction, semantic data integration, and ontology engineering projects that require rigorous semantic foundations [1] [2].
Example Usage: Represent a business domain ontology by extending CCO’s generic Object, Agent, Organization, and Event/Process concepts to define company-specific entities such as employees, contracts, transactions, departments, and business activities. This helps ensure that the business ontology remains compatible with other systems using CCO or BFO-based semantic foundations [1] [2].
Metrics & Statistics¶
Total Nodes |
6002 |
Total Edges |
13554 |
Root Nodes |
19 |
Leaf Nodes |
3389 |
Classes |
1539 |
Individuals |
350 |
Properties |
277 |
Maximum Depth |
10 |
Minimum Depth |
0 |
Average Depth |
4.35 |
Depth Variance |
5.00 |
Maximum Breadth |
56 |
Minimum Breadth |
2 |
Average Breadth |
23.18 |
Breadth Variance |
276.88 |
Term Types |
362 |
Taxonomic Relations |
1532 |
Non-taxonomic Relations |
21 |
Average Terms per Type |
10.06 |
Usage Example¶
Use the following code to import this ontology programmatically:
from ontolearner.ontology import CCO
ontology = CCO()
ontology.load("path/to/CCO-ontology.ttl")
# Extract datasets
data = ontology.extract()
# Access specific relations
term_types = data.term_typings
taxonomic_relations = data.type_taxonomies
non_taxonomic_relations = data.type_non_taxonomic_relations