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Considering the following lists, what would be a good generic word or phrase describing the individual bullet point items? It seems "category hierarchy item" is too wordy/difficult, is there a better/simpler term that I'm missing?

Edit: These words came to mind just after posting this: segment, scope, dimension. But still, I'm not sure if there is word that would be a better fit.

Edit 2: I'm writing some end user documentation for an advanced search feature some software has. So I need a simple way to refer to these bullets in a generic way like "search segment" or "search specificity". I'm just trying to get the most straightforward wording to identify these.

List 1:

  • Artist
  • Artist, Album
  • Artist, Album, Song

List 2:

  • Author
  • Author, Book

List 3:

  • Continent
  • Continent, Country
  • Continent, Country, Region
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  • It's not clear what you're asking. There is an implied hierarchy in the individual bullet points, which implies that your "list" items are in some sense hypernyms of them. Are you looking for the hypernym of each of the individual categories?
    – MetaEd
    Dec 3, 2012 at 16:53
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    In terms of a tree structure, they could be called either nodes or constituents, depending on whether one is referring to individual points in the structure itself, or to the items categorized under the nodes. Respectively.
    – John Lawler
    Dec 3, 2012 at 16:58
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    "Clades" or "taxonomy categories" might be a good term for the individual bullet points. So you might be able to use "clade list" or "taxonomy list" for a root level item.
    – MetaEd
    Dec 3, 2012 at 17:10
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    Is there any reason you can't just say "search fields"?
    – J.R.
    Dec 3, 2012 at 18:34
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    The technical word used by biologists is 'taxon'.
    – Mitch
    Dec 4, 2012 at 13:44

3 Answers 3

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I would call them "subtopics" as in an outline.

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0

I think you could call them just Trees .

The term tree may not be lexically accurate or entirely appropriate (I don't know), but it seems to the one word that quickly brings up the intended meaning in an unambiguous way. In the given context, any reference to a tree can create no other imagery than a taxonomic structure as you have here.

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1
  • Thanks but, my question is how to refer to the individual bullet points, not the lists.
    – programmer
    Dec 4, 2012 at 8:47
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Why not just refer to them as "searches?" Or, if they are not searches, but filters, then "filters?"

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