Skip to content

Glossary term

Entity resolution

Definition

Normalising people, organisations, infrastructure, and locations that appear differently across many sources into single, linked entities — so analysts work from a coherent picture instead of raw search results. A core step between collection and analysis in any multi-source investigation.

In practice

Real sources spell the same person five ways and hide the same company behind three shells. Entity resolution decides, on evidence, when 'J. Novak', 'Janez Novak' and a directorship record are one entity — or demonstrably are not.

Get it wrong and every downstream judgement inherits the error. It is the quiet step between collection and analysis where good multi-source work is either set up or sabotaged.

All 19 terms

Browse the full glossary, or ask us how these disciplines combine in practice.