Entity Resolution

The process of identifying when different records represent the same real-world entity and when similar labels represent distinct entities. It combines keys, normalization rules, probabilistic signals, and domain knowledge to reconcile people, organizations, accounts, or products across systems.

An ontology defines which entities and relationships exist; entity resolution applies criteria to connect concrete records to those definitions. False matches contaminate metrics and permissions, while missed matches fragment history. Thresholds, review of ambiguous cases, provenance, and segment-level evaluation therefore belong in the design.