A legend is an explanatory key that maps symbols, marks, or colors within a diagram, map, or chart to their intended meanings. Parameters: the legend must enumerate or categorize each symbol used, and each symbol must map to exactly one referent. Persistence mechanism: the legend persists through convention — once established it endures across copies and transmissions of the diagram or map, enabling any future viewer to decode visual information without the original creator. Law 6: This definition carves legend as a human-made convention for visual interpretation, excluding natural features (which lack an agreed symbol mapping) and abstract art without encoded meaning.
Accepted ontology entry
legend
A legend is an explanatory key that maps symbols, marks, or colors within a diagram, map, or chart to their intended meanings. Parameters: the legend must enumerate or categorize each symbol used, and each symbol must map to exactly one re…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A legend is a human-made explanatory key that maps symbols, colors, or markings in a diagram or map to their meanings. Built to persist as a convention enabling any viewer to decode visual information
Names and aliases
- legenden · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrcno9lw00qn13vzaykztq7lDERIVED_FROM →
Legends derive from myth as a narrative tradition. Myths are the older, more general category of sacred/primordial stories; legends developed as a distinct but related form focusing on historical figures/events. which-came-first: myth predates legend.
- cmrmpithv016wd1nlzmhff5weINSTANCE_OF →
A legend IS a specific kind of folklore per Law 9. A competent speaker would call a legend 'a type of folklore.' Direction: specific→general.
- cmrmpzbzj019yd1nlk7u50r8vSERVES →
A legend (map key) IS a symbolic decoder designed for the purpose of enabling interpretation of visual representations. Law 8d: without a legend, map symbols cannot be understood — the designed purpose is to allow the reader to interpret what the symbols mean. The servant (legend) points at the master (interpretation).
- cmrf51qwi005rcqqtmpyziy84SERVES →
Per Law 8d: servant (legend) → master (memory). A legend is a narrative construct deliberately fashioned to preserve and transmit cultural memory across generations. Its designed purpose is memory-preservation — remove the concept of legendary narrative and the mechanism for intergenerational cultural memory loses a key mode of operation.
Relations to this entry
- cmrxqh5nw03vksoac1tgfpgi9← CONTAINS
A legend is a literal part inside a chart — it identifies which data series corresponds to which visual encoding. Whole-and-part relationship (Law 10).
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 17, 2026, 7:32 AM UTC
- Content hash
- 18f3d059e805586cc1dc498e9e7e48c78a2a31ac58b1b0e1b13c7f99f8cf8ed4