1. A computer-implemented method comprising: accessing a directory of entities that indicates, for each entity, (i) a reference name of the entity, (ii) an entity type associated with the entity, and (iii) a geographic location associated with the entity; obtaining, for each of one or more of the entities, a set of one or more canonical names for the entity, wherein the set of canonical names for the entity includes the reference name for the entity; obtaining, for each of the one or more entities, a phonetic representation of each canonical name of the set of canonical names for the entity; selecting a particular geographic area and a particular entity type; selecting entities from the directory that (i) have an entity type that matches the particular entity type, and (ii) have a geographic location that matches the particular geographic area; generating, for each of the selected entities, a record in an entity type-specific, geo-localized entity database, wherein, for each of the selected entities, the record indicates at least (i) a reference name of the selected entity, (ii) a respective phonetic representation of each canonical name of the set of canonical names for the selected entity; receiving an utterance that includes (i) a first term that indicates the particular entity type, and (ii) a second term that indicates an entity name; obtaining a phonetic representation of the second term; determining that the phonetic representation of the second term matches a particular phonetic representation of a particular canonical name of a set of canonical names associated with a particular entity; and in response to determining that the phonetic representation of the second term matches the particular phonetic representation of the particular canonical name of the set of canonical names associated with the particular entity, outputting the reference name associated with the particular entity as a transcription of the second term.