The Semantic Domain is a “specific area of ​​cultural emphasis” – Harriet Ottenheimer (2006), writer of Linguistic Anthropology.

A semantic domain is a specific place that shares a set of meanings, or a language that retains its meaning, within a particular context of that place.

The Semantic Domain according to lexicography

In lexicography, a semantic domain or semantic field is defined as "an area of ​​meaning and the words used to talk about it… For example, English has a domain called 'Rain', which includes words like rain, drizzle, downpour, raindrop, puddle."

Semantic domains are the fundamental concept for the initial stages of vernacular dictionary construction projects. It utilizes techniques such as the Dictionary Development Process (DDP) from SIL International, RapidWords, or software like WeSay or FLEx.

These techniques rely on extensive lists of semantic domains that are relevant to vernacular languages.

The Semantic Domain for the Social Sciences

In the social sciences, the concept of semantic domains originated from ideas in cognitive anthropology.

The search was originally to see how the words that groups of humans use to describe certain things are relative to the underlying perceptions and meanings that these groups share (Ottenheimer, 2006, p. 18).

Ethnosemantics became the field that focused on the study of these semantic domains and, more specifically, the study of how the categorization and context of words and groups of words reflected the ways in which different cultures categorize words in discourse and assign meaning to their language.

Semantic Domain in SEO

Defining the semantic domain in a search engine optimization project is fundamental in the taxonomy creation stage of your website. Contemporary search engines use algorithms that seek to understand what your company offers to its audience. Defining a domain for your website includes it in the group of businesses that deal with that subject, which facilitates the understanding of your content and simplifies the categorization and naming of pages, categories, products, and services.