Hello!

I'm having trouble distinguishing between an entity and an entity type.

The textbook says that an entity is a "distinct object that is to be represented in the database". The examples of entities it gives are:

• Branch
• Staff
• PropertyForRent
• Client
• PrivateOwner
• Lease

The textbook also defines an entity type as "a group of objects in the real world with the same properties", then goes on to say that we can give "only a working definition of an entity type" listing examples as:

• Staff
• PropertyForRent

Those both have the same examples! And they both seem to be represented the same way (rectangles) in ER diagrams, so how do they differ? Is an entity a single instance of an entity type, or is that an entity occurrence?

Thank you!