Topic List

Click a topic to learn more.


Term of the Moment

frame


Look Up Another Term


Definition: natural language query


A query expressed by typing English, French or any other spoken language in a normal manner. For example, "how many sales reps sold more than a million dollars in any eastern state in January?" In order to allow that query to be spoken aloud, both a voice recognition system and natural language query software are required.

Not Quite the Same as a Search Engine Query
A natural language query is based on the known identification of each data element that has been previously defined in a database, which means that the result should be extremely accurate. In addition, such queries are made against proprietary data within an organization. In contrast, while a search engine query supports natural language and may provide similar results, they are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. However, after years of scouring the trillions of pages on the Web, search engine algorithms have derived the world's largest knowledge base of public data. See search engine, GPT and ChatGPT.




A Natural Language Example
EasyAsk's English Wizard generated the SQL code in the window at the bottom from the English sentence at the top. It is amazing how much SQL is necessary to ask what looks like a simple question. (Screenshot courtesy of EasyAsk Inc.)