Entity

This article is about the concept of an entity. For other uses, see Entity (disambiguation).

An entity is something that exists as itself, as a subject or as an object, actually or potentially, concretely or abstractly, physically or not. It need not be of material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal fictions are usually regarded as entities. In general, there is also no presumption that an entity is animate, or present.

The word is abstract in intention. It may refer, for example, to Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander; to a stone; to a cardinal number; to a language; or to ghosts or other spirits.

The word entitative is the adjective form of the noun entity. Something that is entitative is considered in its own right.

In philosophy, ontology is about the recognition of entities. The words ontic and entity are derived respectively from the ancient Greek and Latin present participles that mean 'being'.

Specialized uses

• A DBMS entity is either a thing in the modeled world or a drawing element in an ERD.
• In SUMO, Entity is the root node and stands for the universal class of individuals.
• In VHDL, entity is the keyword for defining a new object.
• An SGML entity is an abbreviation for some expanded piece of SGML text.
• An open systems architecture entity is an active routine within a layer.
• In computer games and game engines, entity is a dynamic object such as a non-player character or item.
• In HTML, entity is a code snippet (e.g., "®" for "Registered Trademark") which is interpreted by web browsers to display special characters. See List of XML and HTML character entity references.
• In law, a legal entity is an entity that is capable of bearing legal rights and obligations, such as a natural person or an artificial person (e.g. business entity or a corporate entity).
• In politics, entity is used as term for territorial divisions of some countries (e.g. Bosnia and Herzegovina)

See also

• Digital identity
• Entity class
• Entity realism, a form of scientific realism
• Entitativity
• Everything
• Non-physical entity
• Object (philosophy)
• Ontology, the study of being, existence and entities
• Polity, a political entity