• A data model optimized for the space-efficient storage of sparse or ad hoc property and data values, intended for situations where runtime usage patterns are arbitrary, subject to user variation, or otherwise unforeseeable. The use case targets applications which offer a large or rich system of defined property types, which are in turn appropriate to a wide set of entities, but where typically only a small, specific selection is instantiated (or persisted) for a given entity. Therefore, the EAV data model relates to the mathematical notion of a sparse matrix. ← Wikipedia

1. Related terms: Attribute, Character entity reference, Custom data attribute, Surrogate key
2. Previous term: Entity reference
3. Next term: Enum
4. Random term: Lock file poisoning (webglossary.info/random 🎲)