Summary of Relational Terminology

updated January 31, 2006

Term	Meaning	Synonyms
relation	Two-dimensional table	table, file
attribute	Column of a relation	column, field
tuple	Row in a relation	row, record
domain	Physical & Logical description of allowed values
relation structure	Format of relation
occurrence	Relation Structure with Data
key	Group of one or more attributes that uniquely identifies a tuple in a relation	logical key
physical key	A group of one or more attributes that is supported by a data structure that facilitates fast retrieval or rapid sequential access	index
functional dependency
candidate key
primary key
surrogate key
composite key
foreign key
entity
determinant
referential integrity constraint
normal form
multi-valued dependency