Entity
An entity is a distinct thing — a company, person, product or place — that a search or AI system recognises and reasons about as a single identifiable object.
Modern systems do not merely match strings; they resolve references to entities. 'Acme', 'Acme Ltd' and 'acme.com' should all resolve to one entity with known attributes and relationships.
Entity resolution fails when a business presents inconsistently — three name variants across a site, no structured data, no links to profiles elsewhere. The system cannot confidently determine that these references describe one company, and low confidence produces omission.
Why it matters
Entity clarity is the foundation everything else rests on. A business a model cannot confidently identify will not be recommended, however good its content.