statistical significance

Cultural  

1. In statistics, a number that expresses the probability that the result of a given experiment or study could have occurred purely by chance. This number can be a margin of error (“The results of this public opinion poll are accurate to five percent”), or it can indicate a confidence level (“If this experiment were repeated, there is a probability of ninety-five percent that our conclusions would be substantiated”).

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Example Sentences

"The statistical significance of this is not high enough to claim a detection of dark matter, and further checks should be performed by independent groups," Aurrekoetxea says.

From Science Daily • May 19, 2026

Fewer Lyme disease cases occurred among the 9,400 subjects in the study than had been expected, causing it to fall short of one of the study’s key measures of statistical significance.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 23, 2026

"Our data is based on 300 galaxies. The statistical significance is roughly one-in-a-trillion chance of being a fluke. So, I strongly feel that already our research is very, very significant."

From BBC • Dec. 27, 2025

The move came after Sarepta said the results of a trial for two of its gene-therapy drugs targeting Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare muscle-wasting illness, hadn’t reached statistical significance.

From Barron's • Nov. 4, 2025

An absolutely fundamental concept, that of statistical significance, was first propounded by Ronald Fisher in 1925.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton