A representation term is commonly referred to as a class word by those familiar with data dictionaries.
The Universal Data Element Framework uses a subset of CCTS representation terms and assigns numeric codes to those used.
When a person or software agent is analyzing two separate metadata registries to find property equivalence, the Representation Term can be used as a guide.
When creating a data warehouse, a business analyst looks at the Representation Terms to quickly find the dimensions and measures of a subject matter in order to build OLAP cubes.
ISO 15000-5 is being used by a number of government, standards development organizations, and private sector as the basis for data modeling.
The following are samples of Representation Terms that have been used for the exchange of electronic messages in systems such as NIEM or GJXDM 3.0: [note: the restrictions expressed here are limited to those specifications and do not represent universal consensus] [Note] This is an extremely limited set of the wide range of standards that specify the use of representation terms.