# Evolution of Semantic Similarity -- A Survey

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.13820 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.13820/

## Key facts

- Cited by 83 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 19 Apr 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 83)

- [The Geometry of Concepts: Sparse Autoencoder Feature Structure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.19750/) (2024)
- [D2A: A Dataset Built for AI-Based Vulnerability Detection Methods Using Differential Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.07995/) (2021)
- [A Simple Approach to Improve Single-Model Deep Uncertainty via Distance-Awareness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.00403/) (2022)
- [Reinforcement Learning-powered Semantic Communication via Semantic Similarity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.12121/) (2021)
- [What Makes Sentences Semantically Related: A Textual Relatedness Dataset and Empirical Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.04845/) (2021)
- [AEON: A Method for Automatic Evaluation of NLP Test Cases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.06439/) (2022)
- [conSultantBERT: Fine-tuned Siamese Sentence-BERT for Matching Jobs and Job Seekers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.06501/) (2021)
- [GraphQ IR: Unifying the Semantic Parsing of Graph Query Languages with One Intermediate Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.12078/) (2022)
- [PertEval: Unveiling Real Knowledge Capacity of LLMs with Knowledge-Invariant Perturbations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.19740/) (2024)
- [Explaining Text Similarity in Transformer Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.06604/) (2024)
- [MoRSE: Bridging the Gap in Cybersecurity Expertise with Retrieval Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15748/) (2024)
- [SAC-Opt: Semantic Anchors for Iterative Correction in Optimization Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.05115/) (2025)
- [Retrieval- and Argumentation-Enhanced Multi-Agent LLMs for Judgmental Forecasting (Extended Version with Supplementary Material)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24303/) (2025)
- [SemCoT: Accelerating Chain-of-Thought Reasoning through Semantically-Aligned Implicit Tokens](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24940/) (2025)
- [Understanding Practices around Computational News Discovery Tools in the Domain of Science Journalism](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.06864/) (2023)
- [Hybrid RAG-empowered Multi-modal LLM for Secure Data Management in Internet of Medical Things: A Diffusion-based Contract Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.00978/) (2024)
- [Aligning (Medical) LLMs for (Counterfactual) Fairness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.12055/) (2024)
- [Consistency of Responses and Continuations Generated by Large Language Models on Social Media](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.08102/) (2025)
- [Near-Term Advances in Quantum Natural Language Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.02171/) (2022)
- [Systematic Literature Review: Computational Approaches for Humour Style Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01759/) (2024)
- [Incubating Text Classifiers Following User Instruction with Nothing but LLM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.10877/) (2024)
- [A Dynamic, Interpreted CheckList for Meaning-oriented NLG Metric Evaluation -- through the Lens of Semantic Similarity Rating](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.12176/) (2022)
- [QUADRo: Dataset and Models for QUestion-Answer Database Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.01003/) (2023)
- [Rewriting the Script: Adapting Text Instructions for Voice Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.09992/) (2023)
- [Conversational Process Modeling: Can Generative AI Empower Domain Experts in Creating and Redesigning Process Models?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.11065/) (2023)
- [Reviewing Intelligent Cinematography: AI research for camera-based video production](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.05039/) (2024)
- [Learning Along the Arrow of Time: Hyperbolic Geometry for Backward-Compatible Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05826/) (2025)
- [DCP-Bench-Open: Evaluating LLMs for Constraint Modelling of Discrete Combinatorial Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06052/) (2025)
- [A Survey on Automated Sarcasm Detection on Twitter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.02516/) (2022)
- [Trusta: Reasoning about Assurance Cases with Formal Methods and Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.12941/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Estimating the semantic similarity between text data is one of the challenging and open research problems in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). The versatility of natural language makes it difficult to define rule-based methods for determining semantic similarity measures. In order to address this issue, various semantic similarity methods have been proposed over the years. This survey article traces the evolution of such methods, categorizing them based on their underlying principles as knowledge-based, corpus-based, deep neural network-based methods, and hybrid methods. Discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each method, this survey provides a comprehensive view of existing systems in place, for new researchers to experiment and develop innovative ideas to address the issue of semantic similarity.
