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AI GLOSSARY

Semantic Search

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

A search approach that retrieves results based on the meaning of a query rather than exact keyword matches. Semantic search uses embeddings to represent queries and documents in a shared vector space, so conceptually relevant content surfaces even when it uses entirely different words. This makes it far more effective than keyword search for nuanced, conversational, or domain-specific queries.
See also: vector database, RAG pipeline.