{
  "definition": "A retrieval task in which the retrievable units are passages or passage-like text segments rather than whole documents or other larger items.",
  "derivedRelations": [
    {
      "note": "Document retrieval returns documents as the primary retrievable units; passage retrieval returns passages or passage-like segments.",
      "target": "document-retrieval",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "target": "corpus",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "hotpotqa",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "inex",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "natural-questions",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "question-answering",
      "type": "related"
    }
  ],
  "distinctions": [
    {
      "reason": "Chunking creates passage-like units; passage retrieval retrieves such units for a query or information need.",
      "statement": "Passage Retrieval is not Chunking.",
      "target": "chunking",
      "targetLabel": "Chunking",
      "targetUri": "https://id.searchplex.net/chunking/"
    },
    {
      "reason": "Dense Passage Retrieval is a specific dense neural method; passage retrieval is the broader task of retrieving passages.",
      "statement": "Passage Retrieval is not Dense Passage Retrieval.",
      "target": "dense-passage-retrieval",
      "targetLabel": "Dense Passage Retrieval",
      "targetUri": "https://id.searchplex.net/dense-passage-retrieval/"
    },
    {
      "reason": "Passage retrieval is often used inside RAG systems, but RAG is the broader retrieval-augmented generation pattern.",
      "statement": "Passage Retrieval is not Retrieval-Augmented Generation.",
      "target": "rag",
      "targetLabel": "Retrieval-Augmented Generation",
      "targetUri": "https://id.searchplex.net/rag/"
    }
  ],
  "id": "passage-retrieval",
  "kind": "Task",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/",
  "links": [
    {
      "label": "Dense Passage Retrieval for Open-Domain Question Answering",
      "type": "definingReference",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.04906"
    },
    {
      "label": "MS MARCO passage ranking benchmark",
      "type": "officialHomepage",
      "url": "https://ir-datasets.com/msmarco-passage.html"
    }
  ],
  "modifiedAt": "2026-09-14T06:43:46Z",
  "prefLabel": "Passage Retrieval",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Searchplex",
    "url": "https://searchplex.net/"
  },
  "relations": [
    {
      "target": "retrieval",
      "type": "broader"
    },
    {
      "note": "Chunking creates passage-like units; passage retrieval retrieves such units for a query or information need.",
      "target": "chunking",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "note": "Dense Passage Retrieval is a specific dense neural method; passage retrieval is the broader task of retrieving passages.",
      "target": "dense-passage-retrieval",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "note": "Passage retrieval is often used inside RAG systems, but RAG is the broader retrieval-augmented generation pattern.",
      "target": "rag",
      "type": "notEquivalentTo"
    },
    {
      "target": "candidate-retrieval",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "chunking",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "dense-passage-retrieval",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "ms-marco-passage-ranking",
      "type": "related"
    },
    {
      "target": "rag",
      "type": "related"
    }
  ],
  "representations": {
    "html": "https://id.searchplex.net/passage-retrieval/",
    "json": "https://id.searchplex.net/passage-retrieval.json",
    "jsonld": "https://id.searchplex.net/passage-retrieval.jsonld"
  },
  "scheme": "https://id.searchplex.net/scheme/",
  "scopeNote": "Passage retrieval is common in open-domain question answering, RAG, and passage-ranking benchmarks. It is distinct from chunking, which creates or selects the units, and from passage ranking, which emphasizes ordering a set of passage candidates.",
  "status": "published",
  "terms": [
    {
      "community": "academic",
      "label": "Passage Ranking",
      "usage": "nearSynonym"
    },
    {
      "community": "industry",
      "label": "Chunk Retrieval",
      "usage": "nearSynonym"
    }
  ],
  "uri": "https://id.searchplex.net/passage-retrieval/"
}