OWL is an acronym for Web Ontology Language, a markup language for publishing and sharing data using ontologies on the Internet. OWL is a vocabulary extension of RDF (the Resource Description Framework) and is derived from the DAML+OIL Web Ontology Language. Together with RDF and other components, these tools make up the semantic web project.

OWL currently has three flavors: OWL Lite, OWL DL, and OWL Full. These flavors incorporate different features, and in general it is easier to reason about OWL Lite than OWL DL and OWL DL than OWL Full. OWL Lite is constructed in such a way that every statement can be decided (reified) in finite time, the higher OWL versions can contain endless 'loops'.

OWL DL is based on the Description logic . Its subset OWL Lite is based on the less expressive logic .

About the acronym

Some may claim that the correct acronym for Web Ontology Language should be WOL instead of OWL. The order was chosen in honor of the character Owl from Winnie the Pooh, who wrote his name WOL instead of OWL.

External links

• OWL Web Ontology Language Overview
• OWL Web Ontology Language Guide
• OWL Web Ontology Language Reference
• What is ontology?