entité

Entità, or entity, is a term used across disciplines to denote something that has a distinct and identifiable existence. In everyday use it can refer to any object or being singled out for discussion. The concept emphasizes separateness and describability through attributes.

In philosophy, an entity is anything that exists, including concrete objects, persons, or abstract objects. Some frameworks distinguish entities from their properties, while others treat universals and particulars as different kinds of entities.

In linguistics and semantics, an entity often means the referent of a noun phrase or pronoun—the thing in the world that a statement is about.

In information technology and data modeling, an entity is a thing about which data is stored. In the entity-relationship model, an entity type is a category such as Person or Product; each instance is an object with attributes and relationships.

In law and business, the term denotes a corporate or legal entity, such as a company, recognized as having rights and responsibilities apart from its members.

In ontology, entities are the basic units of a domain, forming the building blocks used to model reality. The precise sense of entità depends on context, but the common thread is that it designates a discrete, referable unit suitable for analysis, storage, or discussion.