sampling - (statistics) the selection of a suitable sample for study

distribution, statistical distribution - (statistics) an arrangement of values of a variable showing their observed or theoretical frequency of occurrence

centile, percentile - (statistics) any of the 99 numbered points that divide an ordered set of scores into 100 parts each of which contains one-hundredth of the total

decile - (statistics) any of nine points that divided a distribution of ranked scores into equal intervals where each interval contains one-tenth of the scores

quartile - (statistics) any of three points that divide an ordered distribution into four parts each containing one quarter of the scores

cross section - a sample meant to be representative of a whole population

grab sample - a single sample or measurement taken at a specific time or over as short a period as feasible

random sample - a sample grabbed at random

experimental variable, independent variable - (statistics) a variable whose values are independent of changes in the values of other variables

degree of freedom - (statistics) an unrestricted variable in a frequency distribution

dependent variable - (statistics) a variable in a logical or mathematical expression whose value depends in the independent variable; if f(x)=y, y is the dependent variable

predictor variable - a variable that can be used to predict the value of another variable (as in statistical regression)

Bernoulli's law, law of large numbers - (statistics) law stating that a large number of items taken at random from a population will (on the average) have the population statistics

Bayes' theorem - (statistics) a theorem describing how the conditional probability of a set of possible causes for a given observed event can be computed from knowledge of the probability of each cause and the conditional probability of the outcome of each cause

Bayes' postulate - (statistics) the difficulty of applying Bayes' theorem is that the probabilities of the different causes are seldom known, in which case it may be postulated that they are all equal (sometimes known as postulating the equidistribution of ignorance)

applied math, applied mathematics - the branches of mathematics that are involved in the study of the physical or biological or sociological world

statistical method, statistical procedure - a method of analyzing or representing statistical data; a procedure for calculating a statistic

statistical method, statistical procedure - a method of analyzing or representing statistical data; a procedure for calculating a statistic

least squares, method of least squares - a method of fitting a curve to data points so as to minimize the sum of the squares of the distances of the points from the curve

multivariate analysis - a generic term for any statistical technique used to analyze data from more than one variable

statistic - a datum that can be represented numerically

average, norm - a statistic describing the location of a distribution; "it set the norm for American homes"

demographic - a statistic characterizing human populations (or segments of human populations broken down by age or sex or income etc.)

deviation - the difference between an observed value and the expected value of a variable or function

moment - the n-th moment of a distribution is the expected value of the n-th power of the deviations from a fixed value

distribution free statistic, nonparametric statistic - a statistic computed without knowledge of the form or the parameters of the distribution from which observations are drawn

parametric statistic - any statistic computed by procedures that assume the data were drawn from a particular distribution

outlier - an extreme deviation from the mean

mean deviation, mean deviation from the mean - the arithmetic mean of the absolute values of deviations from the mean of a distribution

modal value, mode - the most frequent value of a random variable

median, median value - the value below which 50% of the cases fall

mean, mean value - an average of n numbers computed by adding some function of the numbers and dividing by some function of n

arithmetic mean, expected value, first moment, expectation - the sum of the values of a random variable divided by the number of values