owl:Thing                                                

Definition

In OWL Full all data values are considered also to be part of the individual domain. In fact, in OWL Full the universe of individuals consists of all resources (owl:Thing is equivalent to rdfs:Resource).

Two OWL class identifiers are predefined, namely the classes owl:Thing and owl:Nothing. The class extension of owl:Thing is the set of all individuals. The class extension of owl:Nothing is the empty set. Consequently, every OWL class is a subclass of owl:Thing and owl:Nothing is a subclass of every class.  

Schema

    <Class rdf:ID="Thing">

        <rdfs:label>Thing</rdfs:label>

        <unionOf rdf:parseType="Collection">

            <Class rdf:about="#Nothing"/>

            <Class>

                <complementOf rdf:resource="#Nothing"/>

            </Class>

        </unionOf>

    </Class>

Example listing

Triple

RDF/XML

    <owl:Class>

        <owl:oneOf rdf:parseType="Collection">

            <owl:Thing rdf:about="#Eurasia"/>

            <owl:Thing rdf:about="#Africa"/>

            <owl:Thing rdf:about="#NorthAmerica"/>

            <owl:Thing rdf:about="#SouthAmerica"/>

            <owl:Thing rdf:about="#Australia"/>

            <owl:Thing rdf:about="#Antarctica"/>

        </owl:oneOf>

    </owl:Class>

The RDF/XML syntax <owl:Thing rdf:about="..."/> refers to some individual (remember: all individuals are by definition instances of owl:Thing).

Other information

The class with identifier owl:Thing is the class of all individuals, and is part of OWL Lite.

Use in ISO 15926