Bundled Terms

The HPO, in general, avoids bundled terms, although exceptions are made for practical reasons if terms are in very common use in the community and not to use the term would make it difficult to annotate patients. As an example, instead of a term such as "Large and bush eyebrows", the HPO would favor two terms, "Large eyebrows" and "Bushy eyebrows", and patients or diseases with this attribute would be annotated by both terms.

The following definition of "bundled terms" was taken verbatim from the wonderful introductory article to the Elements of Morphology series Elements of Morphology: Introduction (PMID: 19127575 ).

Bundling is a word we have used to describe a term that represents 
two or more component findings. The term “large nose” can serve as 
an example of a bundled term as the term comprises several distinct 
features: prominent nose; wide nasal ridge; prominent nasal tip; and 
broad nasal base. We have eliminated most bundled terms as they often 
include presumptions of pathogenesis or association, which may or may
 not be correct. Bundling is also problematic because it can obscure 
component abnormalities and if individuals are described using both 
the single bundled term and the component terms, it can lead to 
confusion. A number of terms have remained bundled, as we felt that 
the utility of the bundled term outweighed the potential pitfalls of 
bundling. If a term is considered to be bundled, this is mentioned 
in the definition and the individual components are indicated in the description.