cross-encoder
The model class usually behind re-ranking. It reads the query and a candidate passage together, in one pass, and emits a relevance score, which is more accurate than comparing two separately computed vectors and far slower.
What cross-encoder does not show
It runs only on the short list retrieval has already produced. A passage that retrieval never surfaced is never scored by it, so improving how a page reads helps here only after the page is findable at all.
Terms this definition uses
Re-ranking · Relevance score · retrieval
Definitions that name cross-encoder
Related terms in Answer engines and retrieval
How a generated answer gets made, and what your page is competing for inside it.
AEO · GEO · AI visibility score · share of voice · prompt set · brand mention · RAG · grounding · training data · embedding · chunking · context window · token · hallucination · refusal · AI Overview · answer engine · citation · retrieval · hallucinated attribution · Hybrid search · Re-ranking · Passage ranking · Query fan-out · Chunk boundary · BM25 · AI Mode · information gain · dense retrieval
Questions about cross-encoder
What is cross-encoder?
The model class usually behind re-ranking. It reads the query and a candidate passage together, in one pass, and emits a relevance score, which is more accurate than comparing two separately computed vectors and far slower.
What does cross-encoder not show or guarantee?
It runs only on the short list retrieval has already produced. A passage that retrieval never surfaced is never scored by it, so improving how a page reads helps here only after the page is findable at all.
Which area of the glossary does cross-encoder belong to?
Answer engines and retrieval: How a generated answer gets made, and what your page is competing for inside it.
See it in the full glossary · 772 terms across 19 areas.
Free browser extension
See this on any site you visit, in one click.
CrawlCheck for Chrome grades every site you visit A–F and shows, from your own browser, what search engines and AI assistants are actually served. Free, no account.