Answers.Body: <p>Although we have had multiple similar questions (see <a href="https://ai.stackexchange.com/q/25467/2444">here</a>, <a href="https://ai.stackexchange.com/q/11285/2444">here</a> and <a href="https://ai.stackexchange.com/q/5408/2444">here</a>) and it seems to me that you focused on <em>word embeddings</em> (probably because you were not aware of the application of embeddings to other contexts), in addition to what is stated in <a href="https://ai.stackexchange.com/a/28012/2444">the other answer</a>, it's important to note that the concept of an <em>embedding</em> does not just apply to words. For example, there are also <em>code embeddings</em> (see e.g. <a href="https://code2vec.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">code2vec</a>) and <em>graph embeddings</em> (see e.g. <a href="https://neo4j.com/developer/graph-data-science/graph-embeddings/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a>), and there are probably other examples. The linked posts contain answers that explain what an embedding and embedding space generally are, so you may want to read them.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2021-05-29T13:01:25.063Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2021-05-29T13:01:25.063Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: nbro
Answers.Body: <p>An embedding is a representation of a word that can be used as a proxy for some of its linguistic properties.</p>
  <p>The 'human' representation of a word, a sequence of letters and other symbols, is not related at all to its meaning or use in actual text. It only serves as a look-up key into our cognitive language processing facility (however that actually works) which enables us to understand the meaning in the context of its usage. However, a computer system does not have such a facility.</p>
  <p>In order to convert the character string into something more usable for language processing, embeddings are created. These are typically vectors describing other words that surround a word in question (as the meaning of a word depends on its context). There are obvious problems with ambiguities (eg is <em>bank</em> the side of a river or a place where you deposit money?), but there are probably ways around that.</p>
  <p>So the embedding (a vector) represents the usage of a word, which strongly correlates with its meaning. Because words as character sequences are useless for most sub-symbolic processing, the terms <em>embedding</em> and <em>word</em> are possibly used interchangably.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2021-05-29T09:50:59.257Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2021-05-29T09:50:59.257Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Oliver Mason
Body: <p>What does the term &quot;embedding&quot; actually mean?</p>
  <p>An embedding is a vector, but is that vector a representation of a word or its meaning? Literature loosely uses the word for both purposes. Which one is actually correct?</p>
  <p>Or is there anything like: <em>A word is its meaning itself</em>?</p>
  
Tags: <terminology><word-embedding><embeddings>
Title: Is an embedding a representation of a word or its meaning?
UserDisplayName: hanugm
ThreadText: # Is an embedding a representation of a word or its meaning?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2021-05-29)
  
  What does the term "embedding" actually mean?
  
  An embedding is a vector, but is that vector a representation of a word or its meaning? Literature loosely uses the word for both purposes. Which one is actually correct?
  
  Or is there anything like: *A word is its meaning itself*?
  
  **Tags:** terminology, word-embedding, embeddings
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2021-05-29. Score: 5 | Accepted answer
  
  An embedding is a representation of a word that can be used as a proxy for some of its linguistic properties.
  
  The 'human' representation of a word, a sequence of letters and other symbols, is not related at all to its meaning or use in actual text. It only serves as a look-up key into our cognitive language processing facility (however that actually works) which enables us to understand the meaning in the context of its usage. However, a computer system does not have such a facility.
  
  In order to convert the character string into something more usable for language processing, embeddings are created. These are typically vectors describing other words that surround a word in question (as the meaning of a word depends on its context). There are obvious problems with ambiguities (eg is *bank* the side of a river or a place where you deposit money?), but there are probably ways around that.
  
  So the embedding (a vector) represents the usage of a word, which strongly correlates with its meaning. Because words as character sequences are useless for most sub-symbolic processing, the terms *embedding* and *word* are possibly used interchangably.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2021-05-29. Score: 2
  
  Although we have had multiple similar questions (see [here](https://ai.stackexchange.com/q/25467/2444), [here](https://ai.stackexchange.com/q/11285/2444) and [here](https://ai.stackexchange.com/q/5408/2444)) and it seems to me that you focused on *word embeddings* (probably because you were not aware of the application of embeddings to other contexts), in addition to what is stated in [the other answer](https://ai.stackexchange.com/a/28012/2444), it's important to note that the concept of an *embedding* does not just apply to words. For example, there are also *code embeddings* (see e.g. [code2vec](https://code2vec.org/)) and *graph embeddings* (see e.g. [this](https://neo4j.com/developer/graph-data-science/graph-embeddings/)), and there are probably other examples. The linked posts contain answers that explain what an embedding and embedding space generally are, so you may want to read them.
  
  
  ---
  
  