# Reranking

> A second pass that reorders retrieved results based on relevance to the query.

- Category: Retrieval & Grounding
- Stage: Established
- Also called: Re-ranker, Second-stage ranking
- Canonical: https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/reranking

## Plain English

First retrieve candidates, then sort them more carefully.

## Example

A RAG system retrieves 50 chunks, then reranks the top 8 before sending them to the model.

## Why it matters

Reranking improves answer quality by keeping weak or noisy chunks out of the final context.

## Related

- [Hybrid Search](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/hybrid-search)
- [RAG](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/retrieval-augmented-generation)
- [Grounding](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/grounding)

## Sources

- [IBM: Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/retrieval-augmented-generation)