Vector Glossary
Quick definitions for vector terminology across all domains.
ANN (Approximate Nearest Neighbor)
AI/MLSearch algorithm that trades perfect accuracy for speed, finding vectors that are "close enough" to the query vector.
Basis Vector
MathA set of linearly independent vectors that span a vector space. In 2D, î and ĵ are standard basis vectors.
Bézier Curve
GraphicsA parametric curve defined by control points. Quadratic Béziers have 3 points, cubic have 4. Foundation of vector graphics.
Cosine Similarity
AI/MLSimilarity metric measuring the angle between two vectors, ranging from -1 (opposite) to 1 (identical). Ignores magnitude.
Cross Product
MathBinary operation on 3D vectors producing a vector perpendicular to both inputs. Magnitude equals the parallelogram area.
Dot Product
MathScalar product of two vectors: A·B = |A||B|cos(θ). Zero when vectors are perpendicular.
Dimensionality Reduction
AI/MLTechniques (PCA, t-SNE, UMAP) to reduce high-dimensional vectors to 2D/3D for visualization.
Embedding
AI/MLDense vector representation of data (text, images, etc.) where similar items have similar vectors.
Euclidean Distance
MathStraight-line distance between two points: √(Σ(aᵢ-bᵢ)²). The L2 norm of the difference vector.
HNSW
AI/MLHierarchical Navigable Small World. A graph-based ANN index offering excellent query performance.
Linear Independence
MathVectors are linearly independent if no vector can be written as a combination of the others.
Magnitude
MathLength of a vector: |v| = √(v₁² + v₂² + ... + vₙ²). Also called the norm or L2 norm.
Manhattan Distance
MathSum of absolute differences: Σ|aᵢ-bᵢ|. The L1 norm, like walking on a grid.
Normalization
MathScaling a vector to unit length (magnitude = 1) by dividing by its magnitude.
Path (SVG)
GraphicsSVG element using commands (M, L, C, etc.) to define complex shapes with lines and curves.
PCA (Principal Component Analysis)
AI/MLLinear dimensionality reduction finding the directions of maximum variance in data.
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
AI/MLTechnique combining vector search with LLMs to generate responses grounded in retrieved documents.
Raster Graphics
GraphicsImages stored as pixel grids (PNG, JPEG). Quality degrades when scaled up.
Semantic Search
AI/MLSearch by meaning rather than keywords, using embeddings to find conceptually similar content.
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
GraphicsXML-based vector image format for the web. Scales infinitely, supports CSS styling and animation.
t-SNE
AI/MLNon-linear dimensionality reduction excellent for visualization. Preserves local structure but slow.
Unit Vector
MathVector with magnitude 1. Obtained by dividing a vector by its magnitude.
UMAP
AI/MLUniform Manifold Approximation. Modern dimensionality reduction preserving both local and global structure.
Vector
MathMathematical object with magnitude and direction, represented as an ordered list of numbers.
Vector Database
AI/MLDatabase optimized for storing and querying high-dimensional vectors using similarity search.
Vector Graphics
GraphicsGraphics defined by mathematical formulas (points, lines, curves) rather than pixels. Scale infinitely.
Vector Space
MathCollection of vectors that can be added together and scaled, following specific axioms.
Viewbox
GraphicsSVG attribute defining the coordinate system and aspect ratio: viewBox="minX minY width height".
Word2Vec
AI/MLFoundational word embedding technique where similar words have similar vectors. "king - man + woman ≈ queen".