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maximum likelihood

British  

noun

  1. the probability of randomly drawing a given sample from a population maximized over the possible values of the population parameters

  2. the non-Bayesian rule that, given an experimental observation, one should utilize as point estimates of parameters of a distribution those values which give the highest conditional probability to that observation, irrespective of the prior probability assigned to the parameters

"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

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.

The run with maximum likelihood was used to assign individual genotypes into groups.

From Nature • May 8, 2018

Yang, Z. PAML: a program package for phylogenetic analysis by maximum likelihood.

From Nature • May 8, 2018

One hundred and twenty-four branch lengths were extracted using TempEst62 from trees inferred using neighbour joining, maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods.

From Nature • May 8, 2018

Secker, J. & Harris, W. E. A maximum likelihood analysis of globular cluster luminosity distributions in the Virgo ellipticals.

From Nature • Mar. 11, 2018

Nodes with bootstrap support values of at least 70 from the maximum likelihood analysis and posterior probabilities of at least 0.95 from the Bayesian analysis are indicated with asterisks.

From Nature • Dec. 25, 2016