Nachfolgend sind die wichtigsten Abkürzungen der ZThes-Datenstruktur aufgelistet. ZThes ist ein "Z39.50 Profile for Thesaurus Navigation" (
Version 0.4 und Version 0.5) und basiert offenbar auch auf den Normen ISO 2788:1986 "terms in monolingual thesauri", ISO 5964:1985 "multilingual thesauri" und ISO 5963:1985 "methods for examining documents, determining their subjects, and selecting index terms".
Siehe dazu auch das Kapitel 
Beispiel eines Geo-Thesaurus' mit ZThes.
| Abk. | Beschreibung |
|---|
| PT | Preferred term (also known as a descriptor). |
| ND | Non-descriptor: that is, a non-preferred term. |
| NL | Node label: that is, a dummy term not assigned to documents when indexing, but inserted into the hierarchy to indicate the logical basis on which a category has been divided - for example, by function. Also known as a guide term or a facet indicator. |
Tabelle 1: ZThes-Abkürzungen und Tags für Begriffs-Typen (termType).
| Abk. | Beschreibung |
|---|
| NT | Narrower term: that is, the related term is more specific than the current one. (Meronym) |
| BT | Broader term: that is, the related term is more general than the current one. (Holonym) |
| USE | Use instead: that is, the related term should be used in preference to the current one. |
| UF | Use for: that is, the current term should be used in preference to the related one |
| RT | Related term. |
| LE | Linguistic equivalent: the current term and the related term are preferred terms representing the same concept - or "sufficiently close" concepts - in different languages. (Synonym) |
Tabelle 2: ZThes-Abkürzungen und Tags für Beziehungs-Typ (relationType).
