basic-level category
a category formed at the level that people find most natural and appropriate in their normal, everyday experience of the things so categorized. A basic-level category (e.g., bird, table) will be broader than the more specific subordinate categories into which it can be divided (e.g., hawk, dining table) but less abstract than the superordinate category into which it can be subsumed (e.g., animals, furniture). A basic-level category will usually meet the following criteria: (a) It represents a level of categorization at which high resemblance among members of the category co-occurs with low resemblance with members of different categories; (b) it represents the highest level at which members have a similar general shape and is therefore the highest level at which a single mental image can stand for the entire category; and (c) it represents the highest level at which numerous attributes can be listed, most
of which will apply to most members of the category (see family resemblance). The name of the basic-level category will generally be the term most frequently applied to the things in question in natural language, the term earliest learned, and the term that is most readily remembered. Also called basic category; natural category.