Class (biology)

For other uses, see Class (disambiguation).
This article is about the taxonomic grouping of related organisms. Not to be confused with the ecological grouping of unrelated plant taxa in phytosociology.
LifeDomainKingdomPhylumClassOrderFamilyGenusSpecies
The hierarchy of biological classification's eight major taxonomic ranks. A phylum contains one or more classes. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown.

In biological classification, class (Latin: classis) is a taxonomic rank, as well as a taxonomic unit, a taxon, in that rank. It is a group of related taxonomic orders.[a] Other well-known ranks in descending order of size are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, order, family, genus, and species, with class ranking between phylum and order.[1]


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  1. ^ "Class". Biology Articles, Tutorials & Dictionary Online. 23 July 2021.