semantic network

    A graph consisting of nodes that represent physical
   or conceptual objects and arcs that describe the relationship
   between the nodes, resulting in something like a data flow
   diagram.  Semantic nets are an effective way to represent data
   as they incorporate the inheritance mechanism that prevents
   duplication of data.  That is, the meaning of a concept comes
   from its relationship to other concepts and the information is
   stored by interconnecting nodes with labelled arcs.

   (1999-01-07)