Subsumption

Subsumption is a way of organizing knowledge where specific concepts are grouped under broader categories. Imagine a hierarchy: "Dog" and "Cat" are both types of "Animal." Here, "Animal" subsumes "Dog" and "Cat," meaning every dog and cat is an animal, but not all animals are dogs or cats. This approach helps systems and people manage and reason about information efficiently by recognizing that general rules apply to all specific cases within a category. It's a foundational idea in fields like knowledge representation and artificial intelligence for structured understanding.