entity (2024)

An entity refers to a person or organization possessing separate and distinct legal rights, such as an individual, partnership, or corporation. An entity can, among other things, own property, engage in business, enter into contracts, pay taxes, sue and be sued. An entity is capable of operating legally, suing and making decisions through agents, e.g. a corporation, a state, or an association.

A legal entity corresponds to the notion of a legal person. A legal entity holds rights, and each entity has a legal status.

[Last updated in February of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team]

entity (2024)

FAQs

What do you mean by entity? ›

: something that has separate and distinct existence and objective or conceptual reality. 3. : an organization (such as a business or governmental unit) that has an identity separate from those of its members.

What is an example of an entity? ›

Examples of an entity are a single person, single product, or single organization. Entity type. A person, organization, object type, or concept about which information is stored.

Can an entity mean a person? ›

Primary tabs. An entity refers to a person or organization possessing separate and distinct legal rights, such as an individual, partnership, or corporation.

What is another meaning of entity? ›

article, being, creature, existence, item, material, matter, organism, presence, quantity, single, singleton, stuff, subsistence, substance, thing.

What is the biblical meaning of entity? ›

The word entity originally meant "being, existence," and was borrowed from Medieval Latin entitas, from Latin ens, irregular form of esse "to be, exist." The suffix –ity means "quality or state." Medieval Christian philosophers, influenced by the Church Fathers and Aristotle, discussed the concept of ens "abstract ...

What is an entity in a relationship? ›

An entity–relationship model (or ER model) describes interrelated things of interest in a specific domain of knowledge. A basic ER model is composed of entity types (which classify the things of interest) and specifies relationships that can exist between entities (instances of those entity types).

Is God considered an entity? ›

Whereas some believers maintain that the word 'God' can quite properly be regarded as referring to or standing for an entity, others would deny this; and although most atheists would probably agree with the latter there seem to be some who are prepared to agree with the former.

What is an example of an entity in real life? ›

An Entity can be a Tangible Entity (real-world object) for example, a car, or a non-real-world object such as a user account.

Is an entity a person place or thing? ›

An entity is any person, place, thing, event, or concept about which information is kept. More precisely, an entity is a set or collection of like individual objects known as instances. An instance (row) is a single occurrence of a given entity. Each instance must have an identity distinct from all other instances.

How do you become an entity? ›

How to Form a Business Entity: 6 Steps to Get Started
  1. Select a Name.
  2. Pick a Legal Structure.
  3. Select a Location.
  4. File Necessary Paperwork.
  5. Set Up Financing and Taxes.
  6. Hire Employees.

What does it mean to be your own entity? ›

An organization, institution, or being that has its own existence for legal or tax purposes. An entity is often an organization with an existence separate from its individual members--for example, a corporation, partnership, trust, estate, or government agency.

What is the opposite of entity? ›

Entity means something that is real or exists. So antonyms for entity include nonentity, abstract, and inanimate.

Which best describes an entity? ›

An entity is an object about which data is to be captured. The attributes of an entity further define the information being stored.

Why is it called entity? ›

The word entity is derived from the Latin entitas, which in turn derives from the Latin ens meaning "being" or "existing" (compare English essence). Entity may hence literally be taken to mean "thing which exists".

What does entity mean in business? ›

An entity is an organization created by one or more individuals to carry out the functions of a business, and that maintains a separate legal existence for tax purposes. It can be created at the local or state level. Entities refer to the structure of the business rather than what the business does.

Who is considered an entity? ›

The term “person or entity” means any individual, corporation, company, foundation, association, labor organization, firm, partnership, society, joint stock company, group of organizations, or State or local government.

Is an entity the same as a company? ›

In many cases, the terms corporate entity and legal entity are used interchangeably. In such contexts, corporate entity means any business organization, whether incorporated or unincorporated, including partnerships, LLCs, as well as corporations and other organizations.

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