DictionaryAI

entity

noun
EN-ti-tee/ˈɛn.tɪ.ti/

Pluralentities

5 meanings of entity

Practice

  1. 1
    separate unitnouncountable
    Something that has a distinct existence as an individual unit, especially an organization or body that has no physical form.

    The merger combined two separate entities into a single corporation.

    For tax purposes, the trust is regarded as an independent entity.

    UsageCommon with separate, single, independent and legal: a separate entity.

    Similarbody, organization, unit

  2. 2
    spiritnouncountable
    A being thought to exist without a physical body, such as a spirit or ghost, or an alien of pure energy in science fiction.

    Paranormal investigators claimed to have recorded an unknown entity in the basement.

    The medium insisted that several entities were present in the room.

    Similarbeing, spirit, presence

    Note

    The vocabulary of the séance room, where the word's vagueness is its use: it names a presence without committing to ghost, spirit or demon. Rollo Ahmed's The Black Art (1936) warns of séances "attracting all kinds of undeveloped and earth-bound entities".

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Rollo Ahmed wrote The Black Art. openlibrary.org
    • The Black Art was first published in 1936. openlibrary.org
    • Ahmed’s book contains the quoted warning about séances attracting entities, with the wording reproduced accurately. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    databasenouncountable
    Anything about which information can be stored in a database; especially, one item in an organized set of elements of the same type.

    The data model defines a customer entity with name, address, and account fields.

    The database treats each customer as a separate entity, storing their name, address, and order history in one record.

    Note

    A data modeler's working term: customer, order and product are typical examples, each a kind of thing the database keeps facts about. In practice it is represented as a table or record type. Attributes describe each instance, and defined relationships link it to other entities. Modelers keep the type (the customer entity) distinct from its instances (one customer's row), and the word slips easily between the two.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    existencenoununcountable
    In philosophy, existence or being, especially the bare fact that something exists, apart from its qualities.

    Similarexistence, being

    Note

    The sense closest to the Latin root, ēns, "being": abstract, uncountable, the condition of existing rather than not existing. Outside metaphysics it lingers in talk of a group holding on to its existence as a group. A people that maintains its tribal entity has kept itself in being, not merely kept its members.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Entity ultimately derives from Latin ēns, meaning “being,” through Medieval Latin entitās. en.wiktionary.org
  2. 5
    nouncountablecomputing
    In HTML or XML, a brief coded sequence, such as &, used in place of a special character or a stretch of text.

    The feed broke because one headline had a bare ampersand instead of the & entity.

    Writing < and > as entities keeps the browser from treating them as tags.

    Note

    An entity reference opens with an ampersand and normally closes with a semicolon: &, <, ©. Numeric character references such as & do the same job by code point. XML predefines only five (amp, lt, gt, quot, apos), while HTML defines a long list, including   for a nonbreaking space. XML calls the code an entity reference and current HTML a named character reference; developers simply say entity.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • The character references illustrated begin with an ampersand and normally end with a semicolon. developer.mozilla.org
    • Numeric character references represent characters by code point; & represents an ampersand. w3.org
    • XML has exactly five predefined entities: amp, lt, gt, quot and apos. en.wikipedia.org
    • HTML supports a long list of named character references. html.spec.whatwg.org
    • HTML's   represents a nonbreaking space. en.wikipedia.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of entity apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Medieval Latin entitās, formed from ēns ("being," with stem ent-) plus the suffix -tās (compare essentia).

Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

  • Entity comes from Medieval Latin entitās, formed from ēns, meaning 'being', with stem ent-, plus -tās; essentia is a related comparison. en.wiktionary.org