The mathematical concept of a Hilbert space, named after David Hilbert, generalizes the notion of Euclidean space. It extends the methods of vector algebra from the two-dimensional plane and three-dimensional space to infinite-dimensional spaces. In more formal terms, a Hilbert space is an inner product space — an abstract vector space in which distances and angles can be measured — which is "complete", meaning that if a sequence of vectors is Cauchy, then it converges to some limit within the space.

Hilbert spaces arise naturally and frequently in mathematics, physics, and engineering, typically as infinite-dimensional function spaces. They are indispensable tools in the theories of partial differential equations, quantum mechanics, and signal processing. The recognition of a common algebraic structure within these diverse fields generated a greater conceptual understanding, and the success of Hilbert space methods ushered in a very fruitful era for functional analysis.

Geometric intuition plays an important role in many aspects of Hilbert space theory. An element of a Hilbert space can be uniquely specified by its coordinates with respect to an orthonormal basis, in analogy with Cartesian coordinates in the plane. When that basis is countably infinite, this means that the Hilbert space can also usefully be thought of in terms of infinite sequences that are square-summable.

Linear operators on a Hilbert space are likewise fairly concrete objects: in good cases, they are simply transformations that stretch the space by different factors in mutually perpendicular directions.

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