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natural key

/ˈnætʃ.ər.əl kiː/ - n.

1 [colloq.] A key the business swore was unique and permanent, right up until the merger, the typo, and the reissued account number.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. An identifier drawn from a record's real-world business attributes, as opposed to a system-generated surrogate.

Filed

See also

business keyThe identifier the business uses in conversation, which is to say a different one in each conversation.
entity resolutionDeciding whether these four customers are one customer, a question the org would rather bill four times than answer once.
keys and identityThe unanswered question of whether two rows are the same person, deferred until a regulator asks it for you.
surrogate keyA number we invented so we would stop arguing about which real-world thing it points to. The argument moved one table over.