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Original · left

Distillation (chemistry)

The process of heating a liquid into vapor and condensing it back into a pure liquid (e.g., spirits, water).

First in use: ancient / pre-modern
Duplicate · right

Knowledge distillation

Compressing a massive, complex "teacher" neural network into a compact, efficient "student" model by training on the teacher's probability outputs.

First in use: c. 2015

Distillation / Distillation (chemistry) / Knowledge distillation

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Duplicate share · 12 mo—
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Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Whiskey stills vs. teacher–student training.

Which meaning of Distillation is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Distillation (chemistry) came first (ancient / pre-modern). Knowledge distillation arrived in 2015. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Distillation (chemistry)Knowledge distillation
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

Share-of-attention line loads here.

The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · ancient / pre-modern

Distillation (chemistry)

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Duplicate · c. 2015

Knowledge distillation

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More duplicated terms

AI & machine learning