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I cannot recall an English word which means the devising or choosing of names for things, and I know what the word is in Chinese(命名法), then I translated it using Google translate and got nomenclature. But I don't think it is the one I am looking for.

I think I can recognize that word in a given context and it should be shorter than nomenclature, then I googled but all results are something like terminology, term or moniker, which are alternatives to the second sense of that nomenclature.

What is that word?

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    The simplest word I can think of is simply naming.
    – stangdon
    Oct 31, 2022 at 15:01
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    Can you give a context where it would be used? For instance, do you mean when people decide what to name a newly discovered things like diseases, species of life, planets, galaxies, asteroids, and so on? Or in some cultures there's special procedures for choosing the name of newborn babies. Would it apply to that? How would you use it in a sentence in Chinese?
    – gotube ♦
    Oct 31, 2022 at 15:51
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    Don't you have access to a better dictionary than Google translate??
    – Lambie
    Apr 2 at 17:25
  • Ontology, taxonomy, division/dividing, metaphysics, classification, anatomy (older sense), grading, ranking, allotment, assortment, pigeonholing, boxing, sorting, hierarchy...
    – Stuart F
    Jul 31 at 21:02
  • 命名法 isn't in Collins Simplified Chinese-English dictionary, and MDBG just gives it as "nomenclature". I don't suppose another Chinese dictionary would be much help.
    – Stuart F
    Jul 31 at 21:07

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Nomenclature is specifically a system or scheme for naming things.

Are you really naming things that don't have a name, or are you attempting to attach metadata (category, type) to something that already has a name?

If you are categorizing things, you can say categorize, put in a category, or even tag.

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