entity

English

Etymology

From the Medieval Latin entitās, from ēns (“being”) (stem: ent-) + -tās (compare essentia), see there for more information.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛn.tɪ.ti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

entity (plural entities)

1. That which has a distinct existence as an individual unit, often used for organizations which have no physical form.
   • 1951 April, D. S. Barrie, “British Railways: A Survey, 1948-1950”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 223:

     The organisational and administrative tasks involved in welding the railways into a single entity have also received much publicity.

   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page ix:

     It is also pertinent to note that the current obvious decline in work on holarctic hepatics most surely reflects a current obsession with cataloging and with nomenclature of the organisms—as divorced from their study as living entities.

2. The existence of something considered apart from its properties.
3. (databases) Anything about which information or data can be stored in a database; in particular, one item in an organised array or set of individual elements or parts of the same type.
4. The state or quality of being or existence.

   The group successfully maintains its tribal entity.

5. A spirit, ghost, or the like.
   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 231:

     [B]ut only too often séances degenerate into pure sorcery or necromancy, attracting all kinds of undeveloped and earth-bound entities.

6. (science fiction) An alien lifeform that has no corporeal body.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:entity

Derived terms

• bioentity
• entitative
• entitic
• entitize
• entity alignment
• entitylike
• entity-relationship diagram
• entity relationship diagram
• entity-relationship model
• entity tag
• first-class entity
• geopolitical entity
• legal entity
• micronational entity
• molecular entity
• nonentity
• political entity
• presentity
• second-class entity
• subentity
• superentity
• third-class entity
• Zionist entity

 

Collocations

Collocations

• legal entity
• single entity
• separate entity
• political entity
• public entity
• governmental entity
• corporate entity
• independent entity
• foreign entity
• unknown entity
• evil entity

Translations

that which exists as an individual unit

• Arabic: كِيَان m (kiyān)
• Belarusian: аб'е́кт m (abʺjékt), істо́та f (istóta)
• Bulgarian: същество́ (bg) n (sǎštestvó)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 實體 / 实体 (zh) (shítǐ), 整體 / 整体 (zh) (zhěngtǐ)

• Czech: entita (cs) f
• Esperanto: ento
• Finnish: olento (fi), olio (fi), kokonaisuus (fi), entiteetti (fi)
• French: entité (fr) f
• Georgian: არსება (arseba), ობიექტი (ka) (obiekṭi)
• German: Wesen (de) n
• Gujarati: અસ્તિત્વ (astitva)
• Hebrew: יְשׁוּת (he) f (yeshút)
• Hindi: अस्तित्वी f (astitvī)
• Irish: aonán m, eintiteas m
• Italian: soggetto (it) m, entità (it) f
• Japanese: 実体 (ja) (じったい, jittai)
• Korean: 실재(實體) (ko) (siljae)
• Lithuanian: subjektas (lt), esybė (lt)
• Macedonian: е́динка f (édinka), су́штество n (súštestvo)
• Maori: hinonga, rangatōpū (Refers to a business entity)
• Polish: jednostka (pl) f, istnienie (pl) n
• Portuguese: entidade (pt) f
• Russian: существо́ (ru) n (suščestvó), объе́кт (ru) m (obʺjékt)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ентѝте̄т m

  Roman: entìtēt (sh) m

• Slovak: entita f
• Spanish: entidad (es)
• Ukrainian: об'є́кт m (obʺjékt), істо́та (uk) f (istóta)
• Urdu: ہستی (hasti)
• Welsh: endid m

something that has properties of being real

• Belarusian: і́снасць f (ísnascʹ), су́тнасць f (sútnascʹ)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: entita (cs) f
• Esperanto: ento
• Finnish: olio (fi), olento (fi), entiteetti (fi)
• French: entité (fr) f
• Georgian: არსი (arsi)
• Italian: entità (it) f
• Maori: hinonga
• Polish: istnienie (pl) n
• Portuguese: entidade (pt) f
• Russian: су́щность (ru) f (súščnostʹ)
• Slovak: entita f
• Spanish: entidad (es)
• Ukrainian: су́тність f (sútnistʹ)

computing: anything about which data can be stored

• Finnish: entiteetti (fi), tietokohde, kohde (fi)
• French: entité (fr) f
• Georgian: ერთეული (erteuli)
• German: Entität (de) f
• Greek: οντότητα (el) f (ontótita)
• Irish: aonán m
• Italian: elemento (it) m
• Russian: су́щность (ru) f (súščnostʹ)

state or quality of existence

• Belarusian: існава́нне n (isnavánnje)
• Bulgarian: съществу́ване (bg) n (sǎštestvúvane)
• Esperanto: ento
• Finnish: olemassaolo (fi)
• Georgian: ყოფიერება (q̇opiereba)
• Italian: esistenza (it) f
• Macedonian: посто́ење n (postóenje), суштеству́вање n (suštestvúvanje)
• Polish: istnienie (pl) n
• Russian: существова́ние (ru) n (suščestvovánije), бытие́ (ru) n (bytijé)
• Ukrainian: існува́ння (uk) n (isnuvánnja)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} Wesen (de) n, ^{(please verify)} Wesenheit (de) f, ^{(please verify)} Dasein (de) n

See also

• duality
• trinity
• relationship

Further reading

• entity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “entity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “entity”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “entity” (US) / “entity” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “entity”, in Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
• “entity”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛntɪtɪ]

Noun

entity

1. inflection of entita:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural