# What exactly is Elasticsearch?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-exactly-is-elasticsearch/66440
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 17, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-exactly-is-elasticsearch/66440 "2016-11-17T18:10:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@akumar111](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/akumar111)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-exactly-is-elasticsearch/66440/1 "2016-11-17T18:10:13Z")
So here's a few questions that I've had difficultly with but I think I know the answer now:
Does Elasticsearch integrate into Lucene at all?
Does Lucene integrate into Elasticsearch at all?
Does Elasticsearch operate on top of a "stock" version of Lucene?
I have found a lot of information that blurs the relationship between Elasticsearch and Lucene. I would like to confirm my understanding that Elasticsearch uses Lucene at it's core, but does not actually have it's _own_ unique version Lucene that it maintains.
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@jasontedor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jasontedor)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2016, 7:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-exactly-is-elasticsearch/66440/2 "2016-11-17T19:05:49Z")
Elasticsearch indeed uses Lucene at its core, providing a distributed layer and APIs on top of stock Lucene. Lucene is not forked in the version of Lucene that Elasticsearch depends on.
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### Author:  [@akumar111](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/akumar111)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-exactly-is-elasticsearch/66440/3 "2016-11-17T19:13:15Z")
Thanks Jason, that's how I understand it... just didn't know the correct terminology to put it all together!
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### Author:  [@jasontedor](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jasontedor)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-exactly-is-elasticsearch/66440/4 "2016-11-17T19:26:15Z")
You're very welcome.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-exactly-is-elasticsearch/66440/5 "2016-12-15T19:26:50Z")
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