Resource Description Framework
W3C standard for representing information as subject-predicate-object triples. Foundation for linked data, semantic web, and knowledge graphs. RDF 1.2 (2026) adds triple terms and language-tagged strings.
What It Is
RDF provides a graph-based data model where statements describe relationships as semantic triples: (subject, predicate, object).
Example: (Claude 3.5, type, LargeLanguageModel)
Triple Format
- Subject: Resource being described (URI or blank node)
- Predicate: Property or relationship (URI)
- Object: Value or resource (URI, blank node, or literal)
RDF 1.2 (2026 Updates)
- Triple terms (RDF-star): Triples can be objects of other triples (meta-statements)
- Directional language-tagged strings: Support for ltr/rtl text (bidirectional)
- Serialization: RDF/XML, Turtle, N-Triples, N-Quads, TriG, JSON-LD
Adoption
- Schema.org: 80+ million web pages
- Wikidata: 100M topics, 10B+ properties/relationships
- Linked Open Data (LOD): 1,301+ interconnected datasets
Use Cases
- Knowledge graph foundation
- Semantic search
- Linked open data publishing
- Metadata integration
- AI agent knowledge representation
Relationship to Semantic Web
RDF is the foundational layer of the semantic web stack, enabling machine-readable data that can be queried, reasoned over, and linked across systems.