AI Glossary
Semantic search
What is Semantic search?
Search that finds conceptually relevant results based on meaning rather than keyword matching. Uses embeddings to compare query meaning to document meaning, enabling retrieval of relevant content even when exact words do not match.
Example in practice
A legal team searching their contract repository for "termination for convenience" clauses would find semantically equivalent phrasing like "unilateral exit rights" using semantic search — which keyword search would miss.