The Coryphoideae is one of five subfamilies in the palm family, Arecaceae.[2][3][4] It contains all of the genera with palmate leaves, excepting Mauritia, Mauritiella and Lepidocaryum, all of subfamily Calamoideae, tribe Lepidocaryeae, subtribe Mauritiinae.[5][4][3] However, all Coryphoid palm leaves have induplicate (V-shaped) leaf folds (excepting Guihaia), while Calamoid palms have reduplicate (inverted V-shaped) leaf folds.[4] Pinnate leaves do occur in Coryphoideae, in Phoenix, Arenga, Wallichia and bipinnate in Caryota.
The genus Sabinaria was discovered and described after the classification used here[3][4] was published, but its morphology clearly places it in tribe Cryosophileae.[6] The genus Saribus was split from Livistona,[7] while Lanonia was split from Licuala,[8] also after publication. Tribe Trachycarpeae was initially described as tribe 'Livistoneae',[3] but the name Trachycarpeae has priority.[4]Also Uhlia is an extinct genus described from permineralized remains recovered from the Ypresian Princeton Chert in British Columbia, Canada.[9]