Glossary term
What is BM25 (Best Match 25)?
BM25 stands for Best Match 25.
A standard formula for ranking search results. Example: Default ranking in Elasticsearch.
Learn it properly · System DesignLesson 19: How Search Works: The Inverted IndexLIKE '%running shoes%' scans every row and still misses “running shoe”. How the inverted index flips documents into term → document lists, how analysis makes search forgiving, how BM25 ranks results, and how search scales and stays in sync.