Semantic Search Definition

semantic search

[computing] A search engine technique, augmented with a pretrained AI language model, that returns the most semantically similar results to a search query. Contrasted with a lexical search, which performs keyword matching, a semantic search retrieves results that are similar in meaning to, but do not exactly match, the original search string. Within GIS, semantic search can improve search results based on relevant spatial data. For example, when a user searches for historic landmarks, a semantic search can retrieve all relevant spatial data to which the query applies.