A temporal entity is an ontological category for anything that exists in or is defined by time, such as an instant, an interval, an event, or a process. In knowledge representation it serves as a shared superclass that anchors time-bearing concepts so they can be related by ordering, duration, and containment. The notion follows established time ontologies like the W3C OWL-Time vocabulary.
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- In a formal ontology, temporal entities divide broadly into temporal instants, which mark points on a timeline, and temporal intervals, which have duration and can contain or precede one another. Treating events and processes as subclasses of temporal entity lets a reasoner apply uniform ordering, overlap, and duration relations across the model. The pattern mirrors the W3C OWL-Time ontology, which formalises Allen interval relations and links temporal positions to calendar and clock values.