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Individual vs Entity - What's the difference?

individual | entity |

As nouns the difference between individual and entity

is that individual is a person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people while entity is that which has a distinct existence as an individual unit. Often used for organisations which have no physical form.

As an adjective individual

is relating to a single person or thing as opposed to more than one.

individual

English

Alternative forms

* individuall (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people.
  • (legal) A single physical human being as a legal subject, as opposed to a legal person such as a corporation.
  • * 1982 , Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms :
  • Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination […].
  • An object, be it a thing or an agent, as contrasted to a class.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, chapter=Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory, title=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, author=Steven French citation
  • , passage=It is typically held that chairs, trees, rocks, people and many of the so-called ‘everyday’ objects we encounter can be regarded as individuals .}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katrina G. Claw
  • , title= Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual .}}
  • (lb) An element belonging to a population.
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Relating to a single person or thing as opposed to more than one.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= End of the peer show , passage=Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.}}
  • Intended for a single person as opposed to more than one person.
  • Synonyms

    * (relating to a single person or thing) (l), (l) * (intended for a single person or thing) (l), (l)

    Antonyms

    * (relating to a single person or thing) (l) * (intended for a single person or thing) (l), (l), (l)

    Statistics

    * ----

    entity

    English

    (wikipedia entity)

    Noun

    (entities)
  • That which has a distinct existence as an individual unit. Often used for organisations which have no physical form.
  • *
  • It is also pertinent to note that the current obvious decline in work on holarctic hepatics most surely reflects a current obsession with cataloging and with nomenclature of the organisms—as divorced from their study as living entities .
  • An existent something that has the properties of being real, and having a real existence.
  • (computing) Anything about which information or data can be stored in a database; in particular, an organised array or set of individual elements or parts.
  • The state or quality of being or existence.
  • The group successfully maintains its tribal entity.
  • * Quotation: The policy of the government of the United States is to seek . . . to preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity --
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * entitative * entity-relationship model * geopolitical entity * legal entity * nonentity