SECAI Core · phase 5 of 15 · noun

Grounding check

A verification step that tests whether the AI model's outputs are correctly supported by specified sources or evidence (such as documents, databases, or the input data itself).

The Explain card

Plain English
A grounding check is a verification step that tests whether a model's output is actually supported by the specified sources or evidence, such as documents, databases or the input data itself.
Example
After a RAG system summarises a vendor contract, a second pass compares each sentence of the summary against the contract text and flags "the vendor guarantees 99.99% uptime" because no such clause exists in the retrieved pages.
Why it matters
Giving a model sources does not guarantee it used them. A grounding check catches hallucinations and quiet drift before outputs reach a decision maker, and provides an auditable record of what was verified.
Hook
Grounding check: the model cited a source, now go see if the source agrees.

Word knowledge

How the word is built, where it came from, and what it sits beside in memory.

In a sentence

On the contract-review pipeline, the grounding check compares each sentence of the model's summary against the retrieved vendor PDF and flags the 99.99 percent uptime claim.

Why these words
  • grounding Old English grund, bottom or earth, plus English -ing names the foundation half, so the inspection hangs on a claim's support rather than on the earth
  • check Old French eschec, a chess threat, from Persian shah via Arabic supplies the inspection head noun, so the grounding is a pass that can fail
Where it came from
Origin
English collocation from Old English grund (bottom, earth) as a gerund and Old French eschec (a chess threat, from Persian shah via Arabic)
Entered the language
early 2020s
What changed
Ground had meant the earth underfoot, then a foundation, then the electrical bond that ties a circuit to earth. English already used grounding for tying a claim to evidence, and Harnad hung the gerund on machines in 1990. Check had meant a chess threat to the king, then a stop, then an inspection, and English already had sanity check and spell check. Retrieval products in the early 2020s put grounding in front of check on that same pattern.
How it is spelled
Pattern
ou in ground spells /aʊ/, as in found and sound
Pattern
nd stays a cluster, as in found and sound
Pattern
-ing turns a verb into a noun of activity
Pattern
initial ch spells /tʃ/, as in chess and chair
Pattern
ck after a short vowel spells /k/, as in deck and wreck
Breaks the pattern
the noun phrase stays two words; a hyphen appears only when some styles treat it as a modifier
Breaks the pattern
ground is noun, verb, and past of grind with no spelling change
Breaks the pattern
check is noun and verb with no spelling change

Spelled like

  • found
  • background
  • chess
  • deck
  • checkout
Broken into chunks
  • ground
    • background
    • underground
    • grounded
  • ing
    • training
    • learning
    • reasoning
  • check
    • checkout
    • checkpoint
    • checklist
  • ck
    • back
    • pack
    • stack
What it sits beside

Same subject

Same shape

  • sanity check
  • spell check
  • background check
  • consistency check
  • fact check

Grounding family

Check compounds

  • sanity check
  • spell check
  • background check

Retrieval pipeline neighbors

Where it sits in the deck

Phase 5: Interacting with Models: Prompting, APIs, and Retrieval

With a working model and clean data, learn the interaction layer — how users and systems communicate instructions and retrieve grounded answers.

Neighbours in this phase