# Dense Retrieval

> Source: https://sukruyusufkaya.com/en/glossary/dense-retrieval
> Updated: 2026-05-13T20:57:43.510Z
> Type: glossary
> Category: dogal-dil-isleme
**TLDR:** A retrieval approach that performs semantic matching by representing queries and documents in a dense vector space.

<p>Dense retrieval prioritizes semantic similarity rather than exact lexical overlap. Even if a query and a document use different words, they can still match if they are semantically close. This is especially important in modern QA, RAG, and semantic search systems. However, strong performance requires high-quality embeddings, the right index structure, and task-aligned training.</p>