Searchplex ID Retrieval terminology registry

Method

Inverted Index

Canonical ID https://id.searchplex.net/inverted-index/

An index structure that maps terms or other lexical features to postings lists of documents or items in which those features occur.

Scope

Inverted indexes are foundational infrastructure for lexical retrieval and keyword search. They enable efficient lookup of lexical evidence, but they are not the retrieval task, a ranking function, or a search engine by themselves.

Used for

Not equivalent to

  • Inverted Index is not BM25. An inverted index provides access to postings; BM25 is a scoring method that can use those postings.
  • Inverted Index is not Keyword Search. Keyword search is a user-facing search style; an inverted index is one common implementation structure beneath lexical search.
  • Inverted Index is not Lexical Retrieval. An inverted index is an index structure; lexical retrieval is the broader retrieval approach that may use inverted indexes and term-based scoring.

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