RAG means Retrieval-Augmented Generation. It's mostly used in casual online conversation. It's casual and generally safe with friends and online. It's standard online vocabulary; nothing inherently concerning about hearing it.
RAG
Retrieval-Augmented Generation.
Etymology timeline
Born ~2020 · no dated citations yetSeen in the wild
Firecrawl: Retrieval-augmented generation - Wikipedia
"Alphabet Inc.") stock value.[\[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrieval-augmented_generation#cite_note-Ars_Technica-2024-4) RAG is used to prevent these errors, but it does not solve all the problems.
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Firecrawl: Rag - Wikipedia
If an [internal link](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:WhatLinksHere/Rag&namespace=0) incorrectly led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.
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Firecrawl: From zero to a RAG system: successes and failures | Hacker News
Semantics, how and which exactly?<br>Believe me, RAG is the finest of technical masterpiece there is.
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Definitions
Global
+1234100%
#1·Apr 23, 2026GlobalWork-OK
Retrieval-Augmented Generation. A pattern where an LLM pulls relevant documents from a vector database before answering, grounding output in real information.
"We're building a RAG app so the bot can cite our actual product docs."
Origin: Introduced in a 2020 Meta AI paper by Lewis et al.
For parents
RAG means Retrieval-Augmented Generation. It's mostly used in casual online conversation. It's casual and generally safe with friends and online. It's standard online vocabulary; nothing inherently concerning about hearing it.
For ESL learners
"RAG" is slang. It means: Retrieval-Augmented Generation. Register: casual. Use it in: casual conversation and online posts. Avoid in: formal writing and professional emails.
Cluster: technology
Heard in the wild
“"Alphabet Inc.") stock value.[\[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrieval-augmented_generation#cite_note-Ars_Technica-2024-4) RAG is used to prevent these errors, but it does not solve all the problems.”
“If an [internal link](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:WhatLinksHere/Rag&namespace=0) incorrectly led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.”
“Semantics, how and which exactly?<br>Believe me, RAG is the finest of technical masterpiece there is.”
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Global
#2·May 2, 2026GlobalcasualWork-OK
Retrieval-Augmented Generation — feeding an LLM live, retrieved-from-a-database context at inference time so it doesn't hallucinate. The architectural pattern that quietly powers most production AI products in 2026.
We're not training a model — we're just doing RAG over the help docs and letting GPT do the rest.
Cluster: technology
Source: Slangora editorial
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For specific readers
Why is this section here?
Slang is read by different audiences for very different reasons. The For parents view re-explains the term in plain, non-judgemental language so a caregiver can understand what their child means without needing the surrounding subculture. The For English learners view focuses on register (when it's safe to use), formal alternatives, and common mistakes — what a textbook won't teach you.
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Related terms
People also read
Semantically related
- grounding80%
Tying an AI's output to verified external facts (documents, databases, search results) to reduce hallucination. RAG is the most common technique.
- fine-tuning65%
Continuing to train a foundation model on a smaller, specialized dataset so it specializes in your task. Increasingly replaced by RAG + prompt engineering for most use cases.
- prompt engineering63%
The craft of writing inputs to LLMs to reliably produce the output you want. Includes role-setting, few-shot examples, chain-of-thought, and careful phrasing.
- tool use63%
The ability of an LLM to call external functions (search, code execution, databases) mid-conversation. The building block of agentic systems.