# The Semantic Web takes Wing: Programming Ontologies with Tawny-OWL

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1303.0213 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1303.0213/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Mar 2013.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [A Pythonic Functional Approach for Semantic Data Harmonisation in the ILIAD Project](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.13042/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The Tawny-OWL library provides a fully-programmatic environment for ontology building; it enables the use of a rich set of tools for ontology development, by recasting development as a form of programming. It is built in Clojure - a modern Lisp dialect, and is backed by the OWL API. Used simply, it has a similar syntax to OWL Manchester syntax, but it provides arbitrary extensibility and abstraction. It builds on existing facilities for Clojure, which provides a rich and modern programming tool chain, for versioning, distributed development, build, testing and continuous integration. In this paper, we describe the library, this environment and the its potential implications for the ontology development process.