# Disambiguation Misunderstandings can occur in any conversation, but when they occur in Crystal, rest assured that they don't go unnoticed. ## A Proactive Request to Solve Ambiguities Misunderstandings in conversation can happen because of **ambiguities**, i.e. words or concepts that may take on **different meanings at the same time**. If your Project's Entities, Filters, Objectives, or even entire Topics are too similar, Crystal will automatically detect those ambiguities when they come up in a question. In these cases, Crystal needs more information to understand which concept to select. In response, it will display a **list of options** to choose from, in order to clarify the question. By selecting the correct option, you will provide Crystal with the missing information to **disambiguate**, i.e. resolve the ambiguity, as per the example below:

{% hint style="info" %} **Please Note** During a conversation with Crystal, you need to resolve an ambiguity about a topic for two reasons; either to specify a topic directly or to [activate some other capability](https://docs.igenius.ai/crystal-advisor/talk-to-your-data/conversation/request-a-data-analysis) on a Topic. E.g. "*give me the breakdown of sales*" or "*notify me about the breakdown of sales*" (breakdown of sales = topic). {% endhint %} ## Ambiguity Types Different types of ambiguities can appear, depending on the nature and granularity of the information involved. The possible scenarios include the following: * [Ambiguous Entities](#ambiguous-entities) * [Ambiguous Aggregations of Entities](#aggfun-ambiguity) * [Ambiguous Values of Filters](#ambiguous-filters) * [Ambiguous Time Aggregators](#timeagg-ambiguity) {% hint style="info" %} **Please Note** A question might contain more than one ambiguity and of different types. {% endhint %} ### **Ambiguous Entities** This ambiguity happens when the combination of the Entities in the question leads to *multiple Topics possible.* The Topics in the list can either fully or partially match the Entities. #### Full Match Topics fully match if they contain all the requested Entities. This ambiguity arises when you ask for a *very common Entity* that might be present in many Topics. In this case, Crystal tries to disambiguate based on the granularity of the [Custom Entities](https://docs.igenius.ai/crystal-console/topics-configuration/configure/custom-entity). * Question: *"Show me the breakdown of sales”* * Ambiguity: *“sales”* * Candidate Topics: * *"sales by region" (Custom Entity)* * *"sales by category" (Custom Entity)*

#### Partial Match Topics partially match if they contain only some of the requested Entities. This ambiguity arises when you ask for an Entity that is *not present in any Topic.* In this case, Crystal tries to disambiguate by retrieving Topics that come close to the requested Entity. * Question: *"Bring me up the count of sales”* * Ambiguity: *“count of sales”* * Candidate Topics (the Topic *"count of sales"* does not exist): * *"total of net sales volume actual"* * *"total of net sales value actual"*

### **Ambiguous Aggregations of Entities** This ambiguity happens when there are multiple Topics containing the same Entity and differing only in the *aggregation function* (sum, count, total, etc.). In this case, Crystal returns the list of Custom Entities that are actually available. * Question: *"Show me the cost”* * Ambiguity: *“cost”* * Candidate Topics: * *"total of cost"* * *"average cost"*

### Ambiguous Values of Filters This ambiguity happens when the question contains a Filter Value that *does not exist but* [*partially matches* ](https://docs.igenius.ai/fundamentals/crystal-topics)*other values.* In this case, Crystal returns the actually available values for that Filter. * Question: “*Show me the total sales in America*” * Ambiguity: “*America*” * Candidate Filter Values: * *"North America"* * *"South America"* {% hint style="info" %} **Please Note** In this disambiguation scenario, in contrast to all the other ones, it is possible for you to *select more than one* Filter Value at once, if needed. From [Release 2.58 ](https://docs.igenius.ai/release-notes/2024/crystal-web/crystal-web-v2.58)you can do this using the *"Select all"* / *"Deselect all"* button! {% endhint %}

Partially Matching Filter Values Ambiguity

### **Ambiguous** Time Aggregators This ambiguity happens when there are multiple O*vertime Topics* differing only in the *time aggregator***.** * Question: *"What's the tax overtime?”* * Ambiguity: *“time aggregator”* * Candidate Topics: * *"tax over time (by day)"* * *"tax over time (by semester)"* * *"tax over time (by quarter)"*

### Ambiguous Source Tables In the context of [Entity-Based Conversation](https://docs.igenius.ai/crystal-advisor/talk-to-your-data/conversation/request-topics/entity-based-conversation), Entities with the same name might be detected. In this case, Crystal will ask you to choose the correct source table for the Entity. Keep talking to your data! ***