entity

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word entity. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word entity, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say entity in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word entity you have here. The definition of the word entity will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofentity, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

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/
  • (file)

Noun

entity (plural entities)

  1. That which has a distinct existence as an individual unit. Often used for organisations 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 Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →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, an organised array or set of individual elements or parts.
  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

Derived terms

Collocations

Translations

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

See also

Further reading

Czech

Pronunciation

Noun

entity

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