Entity

Entity ( the medieval Latin entitas, too late Latin ens, being ', ' thing ' ) is in philosophy, a fundamental concept of ontology, which is used in two senses: First, it refers to something that exists, a being, a concrete or abstract object. In this sense, the concept of entity is generally used as a collective term to address such diverse objects as things, properties, relations, facts or events at once. This is the common use in contemporary parlance. Secondly, it can also stand for the essence of an object, in the sense of a necessary for the existence of the object and its identity element. In this regard entity is synonymous to the classic concept of substance. The first sense of the term is the more commonly used today, however, the independence of the existence of the entity is often still claimed with respect to a specific universe of discourse.