# Entity resolution · Glossary
Identifying and linking records that refer to the same real-world entity, such as a person, company, product or property, even when names, formats and identifiers differ.
[Glossary](/glossary) · Data platforms and engineering

# Entity resolution

     Identifying and linking records that refer to the same real-world entity, such as a person, company, product or property, even when names, formats and identifiers differ. It is also called record linkage or deduplication.

## Why it matters

     Duplicate and unlinked records distort counts, break customer views and weaken models. Entity resolution is foundational for master data, knowledge graphs, fraud detection and any analysis that joins data from different sources.

     Matching involves trade-offs between false matches and missed matches, and the right balance depends on the consequences. Uncertain matches should be reviewable, and match decisions should be recorded.

## In practice

     For example, a UK market intelligence provider might resolve companies across Companies House records, trade directories and news sources, using names, addresses and registration numbers, so each company appears once with all its linked evidence.

## Where Rodan fits

     Rodan builds entity resolution into data platforms and knowledge graphs in [Analytics and Intelligence](https://rodan.io/what-we-build/analytics-intelligence) work. See also [why specialist markets need intelligence infrastructure](https://rodan.io/insights/why-specialist-markets-need-intelligence-infrastructure).

## Related terms

- [Master data management (MDM)](/glossary/master-data-management)

- [Knowledge graph](/glossary#knowledge-graph)

- [Data quality](/glossary/data-quality)

- [Single source of truth](/glossary/single-source-of-truth)
HTML: https://rodan.io/glossary/entity-resolution