ISO 13584-501:2007 specifies the requirements for an ISO-registered reference dictionary for measuring instruments with their properties and domains of values. ISO 13584-501:2007 also establishes and specifies the behaviour of a registration authority whose role is to develop, maintain and update this ISO-registered reference dictionary for measuring instruments. These measuring instruments include environment measuring instruments and laboratory measuring instruments.

The reference dictionaries series of parts of ISO 13584 specifies ontologies for representing the entities of an application domain, together with their descriptive properties and domains of values. Each entity, property or domain of values constitutes an entry of a dictionary that constitutes the formal and computer sensible representation of the specified ontology. It is associated with a computer sensible and human readable definition and with a computer sensible identification.

The unique identification of a dictionary entry allows it to be referenced unambiguously from any application. Definitions and identifications of dictionary entries consist of instances of the EXPRESS entity data types defined in the common dictionary schema, or in its extensions defined in the logical series of parts of ISO 13584.