The language defines several kinds of named entities that are declared by declarations. There are several forms of declaration. All declarations contain a definition for a view of an entity.
Most declarations associate an identifier with a declared entity.
The declaration is said to declare the name, the view, and in most cases, the entity itself. These are collectively called usage names. The process by which a construct achieves its run-time effect is called execution. This process is also called elaboration for declarations and evaluation for expressions. One of the terms execution, elaboration, or evaluation is defined by this International Standard for each construct that has a run-time effect.