mean deviation

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noun Statistics.

a measure of dispersion, computed by taking the arithmetic mean of the absolute values of the deviations of the functional values from some central value, usually the mean or median.

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Also called average deviation.

Origin of mean deviation

First recorded in 1890–95

Words nearby mean deviation

mean anomaly, mean business, meander, meandering stream, meander line, mean deviation, mean distance, meandrous, mean free path, meanie, meaning

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use mean deviation in a sentence

I mean, physically, mentally, you know, in every way, shape, and form.
I Tried to Warn You About Sleazy Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2003|Vicky Ward|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
What they actually mean by that is, you know, he actually knows some people that are poor.
Why This Liberal Hearts Huckabee|Sally Kohn|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
What does Bondi mean that clerks now should “determine how to proceed”?
The Back Alley, Low Blow-Ridden Fight to Stop Gay Marriage in Florida Is Finally Over|Jay Michaelson|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
What is most troubling is our – and I do mean “our” and not “their” – never treating these situations as learning opportunities.
In 2015, Let’s Try for More Compassion|Gene Robinson|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST

They want Marvin to be as mean and as lonely and as trashy as the characters he portrays.
The Story Behind Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance Smile|Robert Ward|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Hilda, trembling at the door, more than half expected Mr. Orgreave to say: "You mean, she's invited herself."
Hilda Lessways|Arnold Bennett
He wanted to tell her that if she called her father, it would mean the end of everything for them, but he withheld this.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
It was difficult, with the mean appliances of the time, to wring subsistence from the reluctant earth.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
With Bacon, experientia does not always mean observation; and may mean either experience or experiment.
The Mediaeval Mind (Volume II of II)|Henry Osborn Taylor
My husband detests them; on the contrary, I like those carriages, for they tell me of happy—I mean to say, of former times.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846|Various

British Dictionary definitions for mean deviation

mean deviation

noun statistics

the difference between an observed value of a variable and its mean

Also: mean deviation from the mean, mean deviation from the median, average deviation a measure of dispersion derived by computing the mean of the absolute values of the differences between observed values of a variable and the variable's mean

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

Scientific definitions for mean deviation

mean deviation

In a statistical distribution, the average of the absolute values of the differences between individual numbers and their mean.