This International Standard specifies general, i.e. implementation- and use-case-independent terminology database design for enabling maximum efficiency and quality in the field of terminology work and, thus, in creating, processing, and using high quality terminology. The intended audiences of this document are terminologists, translators, technical writers, language planners, subject field experts, and terminology management system developers. However, the standard can also be used to evaluate the conformance and suitability of terminology databases. This International Standard describes a maximum approach, i.e. terminology database design for distributed, multilingual terminology management environments. Nevertheless, it can also be used for designing smaller solutions by just subsetting the proposed data model.