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In biology humans belong to the kingdom of animalia and the phylum chordata. Every organism that belongs to chordata belongs also to animalia but not the other way around. Animalia is a hypernym of chordata.

However it doesn't feel like kingdom is a hypernym of phylum. Is there a word for the relationship between the concepts?

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  • Do you want to say "Bigger structural unit" in one long word?
    – J-mster
    Oct 8, 2015 at 15:01
  • @J-mster : I'm not sure whether there's a common term for it. If bigger structural unit is commonly used it's okay.
    – Christian
    Oct 8, 2015 at 15:04
  • Do you mean something like a 'subset' and 'superset'?
    – curiousdannii ♦
    Oct 8, 2015 at 15:05
  • @curiousdannii : I don't think the word kingdom is a superset of phylum the way I understand the word "superset".
    – Christian
    Oct 8, 2015 at 15:07

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"Kingdom" a higher taxonomic level, higher than "phylum". You can probably say "superlevel", if you desperately need it in one word, but I would rather say "higher level in the hierarchy/taxonomy/classification".

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