# Is the elasticsearch relevance score an ordinal or interval value? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [December 1, 2015, 2:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-the-elasticsearch-relevance-score-an-ordinal-or-interval-value/36061 "2015-12-01T14:49:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ollieglass](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ollieglass/32/6269_2.png) [@ollieglass](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ollieglass)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 2:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-the-elasticsearch-relevance-score-an-ordinal-or-interval-value/36061/1 "2015-12-01T14:49:28Z")
Is the elasticsearch relevance score an ordinal or interval value? In other words, is the difference between scores of 0.7 and 0.8 the same as the difference between scores of 0.5 and 0.6? Or is the 0.1 difference meaningless, not a measure of anything? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![rmuir](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/rmuir/32/44949_2.png) [@rmuir](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rmuir)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-the-elasticsearch-relevance-score-an-ordinal-or-interval-value/36061/2 "2015-12-01T15:06:50Z")
Not a measure of anything. See [https://wiki.apache.org/lucene-java/ScoresAsPercentages](https://wiki.apache.org/lucene-java/ScoresAsPercentages) for more explanation. ---
**Author:** ![ollieglass](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ollieglass/32/6269_2.png) [@ollieglass](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ollieglass)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-the-elasticsearch-relevance-score-an-ordinal-or-interval-value/36061/3 "2015-12-01T15:25:11Z")
That's an interesting page but it doesn't answer my question, nor does saying it's "not a measure of anything". ---
**Author:** ![rmuir](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/rmuir/32/44949_2.png) [@rmuir](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rmuir)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-the-elasticsearch-relevance-score-an-ordinal-or-interval-value/36061/4 "2015-12-01T15:30:16Z")
its really not a measure of anything. Its just a value for ranking documents. Absolute value is meaningless and we take advantage of that in several ways: queryNorm, sum-of-logs vs multiplication, etc ---
**Author:** ![ollieglass](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/ollieglass/32/6269_2.png) [@ollieglass](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/ollieglass)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-the-elasticsearch-relevance-score-an-ordinal-or-interval-value/36061/5 "2015-12-01T15:40:48Z")
I am not asking what it measures, I think we're talking at cross purposes. I'd like to know if the scores are just ordinal, or if they are on an interval (or ratio) scale. ---
**Author:** ![rmuir](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/rmuir/32/44949_2.png) [@rmuir](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/rmuir)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-the-elasticsearch-relevance-score-an-ordinal-or-interval-value/36061/6 "2015-12-01T15:57:02Z")
in general you can only assume: absolute values are meaningless. relative values are also meaningless. If you care to understand more, then look at the actual formula for the similarity function you are using. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 11:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-the-elasticsearch-relevance-score-an-ordinal-or-interval-value/36061/7 "2017-07-05T23:34:24Z")