A system and method are provided for deep high-order exemplar learning of a data set. Feature vectors and class labels are received. Each of the feature vectors represents a respective one of a plurality of high-dimensional data points of the data set. The class labels represent classes for the high-dimensional data points. Each of the feature vectors are processed, using a deep high-order convolutional neural network, to obtain respective low-dimensional embedding vectors within each class. A minimization operation is performed on high-order embedding parameters of the high-dimensional data points to output a set of synthetic exemplars. A binarizing operation is performed on the low-dimensional embedding vectors and the set of synthetic exemplars to output hash codes representing the data set. The hash codes are utilized as a search key to increase the efficiency of a processor-based machine searching the data set.