Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

Markov chain

American  
[mahr-kawf] / ˈmɑr kɔf /
Or Markoff chain

noun

Statistics.
  1. a Markov process restricted to discrete random events or to discontinuous time sequences.


Markov chain British  
/ ˈmɑːkɒf /

noun

  1. statistics a sequence of events the probability for each of which is dependent only on the event immediately preceding it

"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 Markov chain

First recorded in 1940–45; see origin at Markov process

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:

These rules could be decomposed into two sets that dominate at distinct length scales -- Markov chain and random nuclei.

From Science Daily Dec. 4, 2023

My ego would like me to believe that my writing process is a little more complicated than a Markov chain.

From The Verge May 9, 2018

Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis was run for 100 million steps, 10% of which were removed as burn-in and sampled every 10,000 steps.

From Nature May 12, 2015

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training