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

Although a high-dose combination of fianlimab and Libtayo showed improvement over Keytruda, the result didn’t reach statistical significance, Meacham noted.

From Barron's • May 18, 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

Not one of these so-called first-impression patterns comes close to satisfying traditional criteria of statistical significance, as you can see from the chart above.

From MarketWatch • Jan. 2, 2026

If some celebrity endorses a brand of dog food, or some cabdriver disapproves of the mayor’s handling of a dilemma, there’s obviously no reason to accord statistical significance to these personal expressions.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos