---
title: "Vector search"
type: "glossary-term"
category: "AI & LLMs"
canonical_url: "https://www.graphcanon.com/glossary/ai-and-llms/vector-search"
updated: "2026-07-09"
---

# Vector search

_Also known as: Nearest-neighbour search, ANN_

**Vector search finds the items whose embeddings are closest to a query embedding, ranking by meaning rather than exact word matches.**

**Vector search** (also called nearest-neighbour or ANN search) ranks results by distance between embedding vectors. You embed the query, then ask the index for the vectors nearest to it.

Because it compares meaning rather than characters, vector search retrieves relevant results even when they share no keywords with the query. Specialized vector databases make this fast at scale using approximate nearest-neighbour indexes.

## See also

- [Vector databases category](/categories/vector-databases)

## Related terms

- [Embedding](/glossary/ai-and-llms/embedding.md)
- [Semantic search](/glossary/ai-and-llms/semantic-search.md)

[AI & LLMs](/glossary/ai-and-llms.md) · [All glossary terms](/glossary.md)

---

**Machine-readable endpoints**

- JSON: [`/api/graphcanon`](/api/graphcanon)
- LLM index: [/llms.txt](/llms.txt)
- Full corpus: [/llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt)

_GraphCanon - The knowledge graph for AI development. https://www.graphcanon.com/_