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conditional probability

American  

noun

  1. Statistics, Mathematics. the probability that an event will occur under the condition that another event occurs first: equal to the probability that both will occur divided by the probability that the first will occur.


conditional probability British  

noun

  1. statistics the probability of one event, A, occurring given that another, B, is already known to have occurred: written P ( A|B ) and equal to P ( A and B )| P ( B )

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of conditional probability

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Because this is a conditional probability, we restrict the sample space to consider only those outcomes that have a blue marble in the first draw.

From Textbooks Mar. 27, 2020

This is a conditional probability, so consider only probabilities in the row labeled "Caught."

From Textbooks Mar. 27, 2020

In order to solve Example 3.30 we had to draw upon the concept of conditional probability from the previous section.

From Textbooks Nov. 29, 2017

Either C would be pardoned or himself, so by all the laws of conditional probability, his chances of survival had gone up from 1/3 to 1/2.

From Scientific American Apr. 15, 2011

Likewise with dice: the probability of rolling a 7 with a pair of dice is 1/6, the same as the conditional probability of rolling a 7 given that the three previous rolls have been 7s.

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

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