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Glossary: Embeddings and Vector Search

HNSW

Also written: Hierarchical Navigable Small World, graph

An approximate index that links each vector to near neighbors and answers queries by walking the links from sparse upper layers down to the full bottom layer. It has excellent recall and accepts new vectors, but uses memory and build time.

Where the book teaches it

Related terms

HNSW settings (M, efConstruction, efSearch)IVFANN (approximate nearest neighbor)