Inverted File Index
Inverted File Index — A partitioned vector-search index that assigns vectors to coarse centroids and searches only selected partitions near the query.
Information-Retrieval Context
An IVF vector index learns coarse centroids and assigns vectors to those cells. At query time only selected nearby cells are scanned; parameters such as nprobe control the recall-latency trade-off, and product quantization can further reduce memory and distance-computation cost.
Terminology Boundary
This is not the same data structure as the classic inverted index used for term-based text search. The shared name reflects partitioned lookup, but IVF operates on vector-space cells rather than term posting lists.