Reranking
Also: reranker, re-ranking
A second pass that puts the best search results at the top.
The fuller definition
Reranking reassesses an initial set of retrieved candidates with another scoring method to improve their order.
- Initial search
Broad candidate set
- Reranker
Reassess relevance
- Final order
Selected passages first
A simplified relationship, not a screenshot or a complete design.
A concrete example
A first search returns 50 passages; a reranker scores their relevance to the full question before selecting a smaller set.
The distinction that matters
A reranker cannot recover a relevant passage missing from the initial candidate set.
Related terms
Retrieval
Searching a larger set of records for useful parts. Finding a passage does not prove it answers the question.
Documents & retrievalHybrid search
Using keyword search and meaning search together.
Reliability & securityRecall
Of the things it should have found, how many it actually found.
Where it is taught
How document-grounded AI answers workSource and further reading
Sentence Transformers · Semantic searchThe definition and example are written for this library. The link gives background, official documentation or legal authority as labelled. Legal scope depends on the jurisdiction and current text; product features depend on release and settings.