# Hypothetical Document Embeddings

> Hypothetical Document Embeddings (HyDE) improves retrieval by having a model write a hypothetical answer to the query, embedding that answer, and searching for real documents similar to it.

- Identifier: PTL-0056
- Category: Retrieval & Tool Use
- Canonical URL: https://protologue.com/t/hypothetical-document-embeddings/
- Also known as: HyDE
- Introduced: 2022

## Description

The generated document may contain errors, but its embedding tends to lie closer to relevant real documents than the short query does.

## Broader terms

- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://protologue.com/t/retrieval-augmented-generation/)

## Sources

- Gao et al. (2022). Precise Zero-Shot Dense Retrieval without Relevance Labels. https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.10496

## Cite this entry

Protologue. (2026). Hypothetical Document Embeddings. In Protologue: A Taxonomy of Prompting and LLM Techniques (v1.0.0, PTL-0056). https://protologue.com/t/hypothetical-document-embeddings/

License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)