OBJECTIVE： To provide reference for the construction of medicine terminologysets in China.METHODS： By introducing and comparing naming rules， terminology type and classfication system of RxNorm， WHODrug and SNOMED CT， the relevant suggestions on the construction of medicine terminology sets in China were put forward. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS： Due to the different demanding objects and specific application scenarios of different terminology sets， the three medicines terminology sets had their own characteristics.RxNorm mainly served electronic health records and medical insurance， and its medicine terminology contained the trade name information of the medicine. WHODrug mainly served ADR reports， and its structured medicine information data carried by the Drug Code， and the set adopted the system classification system-ATC. In order to promote the international interoperability of medicines concepts， SNOMED CT did not contained the trade name，and the purpose of classification was to define drugs. It is suggested that the construction of China’s medicine terminology sets should be based on the design and practical experience of foreign advanced drug terminology， encourage hospitals or pharmaceutical companies to disclose and share data， and try to build a drug model compatible with chemical drugs and proprietary Chinese medicines to adapt to the special nature of Chinese medicines and the needs of international communication.