Definition: Semantic search is a search method that finds results based on the meaning and intent of a query rather than exact keyword matches, usually by comparing embeddings of the query and the content.
Documents are split into passages and converted into embeddings. At query time the question is converted the same way, and the system returns the passages whose vectors are closest, often from a vector database. A search for "cancel my plan" can then match a page titled "Ending your subscription".
Keyword search is precise for names, codes and exact phrases; semantic search handles synonyms and natural questions. Many production systems use hybrid search, combining both scores, then apply a reranking model to order the top results.
Semantic search powers site and help-center search, internal knowledge tools, product discovery and the retrieval step of RAG. Teams measure it with real queries and judged results, then tune chunking, embedding models, filters and reranking.
Ryz vector database engineers and Elasticsearch developers build and tune search systems in your stack, working on your team.
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