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Glossary

What is semantic search?

Semantic search matches on meaning rather than exact wording, so it can find the right passage when the query and the document use different words.

Updated 21 Aug 2026

01

Where this one gets misread

Matching on meaning helps when the wording differs and hurts when precision matters, as it does for an exact reference, a clause number or a product code. Most real requirements need both, and a system tuned hard for one degrades the other.

02

Questions to ask

Ask for a worked example on your own material, and the evidence needed to reproduce it.

  • How does it handle an exact-match query?
  • Can you force exact matching when you need it?
  • What happens with domain terms it has not seen?
  • How was it evaluated against your vocabulary?
03

How Marella uses the term

We use “Semantic search” only where a product mechanism or an evaluation method backs it up, and we say when the behaviour depends on how a deployment is configured.

  • Backed by a product mechanism or an evaluation method
  • Deployment differences flagged

What this page does not prove

  1. B1A definition is not a claim about how the product performs.
  2. B2Vendor implementations vary.
  3. B3Test the term against a representative workflow.

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