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 · 731 terms across 19 areas.