Meaning
Taxonomies are methods of grouping and organizing content in WordPress, providing navigation and filtering structure for posts, pages, or custom post types.
Definition
WordPress includes two default taxonomies: Categories (hierarchical, broad topics) and Tags (non-hierarchical, specific keywords). Developers can create unlimited Custom Taxonomies for specialized organizations: Product Categories, Event Types, Locations, or Industries.
Taxonomies consist of terms (individual classification items). For example, the “Category” taxonomy might have terms like “WordPress,” “SEO,” and “Marketing.” Content can be assigned to multiple terms, and users can view all content associated with a specific term on archive pages.
Custom Taxonomies function similarly to Categories or Tags but can be: hierarchical or flat, applied to specific post types only, and customized with unique labels, permalinks, and template files. They’re essential for complex content organization in custom WordPress applications.
Example
A restaurant directory website creates Custom Taxonomies: “Cuisine Type” (Italian, Mexican, Japanese), “Price Range” ($, $$, $$$), and “Neighborhood” (Downtown, Midtown, Suburbs). Each restaurant (Custom Post Type) is tagged with relevant terms. Visitors filter restaurants by multiple taxonomies simultaneously, finding “Italian restaurants in Downtown with $$ price range” through taxonomy archive pages.
