A terminological system automates the integration of terminological information into a built-in knowledge base. Input terminology information, which includes input terms and information that specifies relationships among at least two of the input terms, is input to the terminological system. The terminological system parses the input terminology information to generate a logical structure that depicts relationships among the input terms in a format compatible with the built-in knowledge base. Either an independent ontology, comprising the logical structure, is generated, or the knowledge base is extended by logically coupling the logical structure to a node that matches the input term. The terminological system also resolves conflicts if an input term that matches a terminological node in the knowledge base connotes a different meaning than the terminological node. A system that converts broader term and narrower term relationships, synonym relationships, related term (RT) relationships, and preferred term (PT) relationships in accordance with the ISO 2788 standard is disclosed.