 All this would appear to suggest that it isn’t straightforward to define grounding simply as a variety of ontological dependence, or the other way around. In any case, even if we could define one notion in terms of the other, it seems that there are aspects of ontological dependence that are not captured by all accounts of grounding as well as aspects of grounding that are not captured by all accounts of ontological dependence. The situation may of course change depending on one’s preferred account of dependence and grounding. Accordingly, for the time being, it is advisable to keep the notions apart, especially since there are some further, formal differences that need to be taken into account. In particular, grounding is most commonly understood as a strict partial order (see Raven 2013), which entails irreflexivity, transitivity, and asymmetry. If this is correct, grounding could only capture a very specific variety of ontological dependence, as we have seen that there are varieties of ontological dependence that violate these formal features. Some have also argued that grounding itself violates all or some of these formal features, so it is not entirely uncontroversial that grounding truly is a strict partial ordering (for discussion, see Jenkins 2011, Schaffer 2012, and Tahko 2013). Given this, the exact link between grounding and ontological dependence remains open, subject to further specification of the formal features of ground.