Title: k-means clustering
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - <em>k</em>-means clustering
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.10130
Status: current

Definition
Unsupervised classification method which partitions objects into \(k\) groups, in which each object belongs to the group with the nearest mean.

Note
Although \(k\)-means clustering is called unsupervised classification the value of \(k\) may be specified.

Related Term
- Unsupervised classification: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/10146

Source
- PAC, 2016, 88, 407. 'Vocabulary of concepts and terms in chemometrics (IUPAC Recommendations 2016)' on page 429 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0605)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10130/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10130/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10130/xml

Citation: Citation: '<em>k</em>-means clustering' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.10130
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-08-06T07:44:06+00:00