standard deviation
a measure of dispersion in a frequency distribution, equal to the square root of the mean of the squares of the deviations from the arithmetic mean of the distribution.
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Origin of standard deviation
1Words Nearby standard deviation
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use standard deviation in a sentence
I analyzed the regular-season standings for each of those teams by year since 19971 and translated each team’s winning percentage at the end of the regular season2 into a z-score to find how many standard deviations it was from the mean that season.
Tampa’s Teams Are On One Hell Of A Winning Streak | Andrew Mooney | October 4, 2021 | FiveThirtyEightOnly the 1988 and 1981 seasons ended with a smaller standard deviation of team Elo ratings than 1982 did — which, in turn, helped set an uncertain tone for 1983 that didn’t let up all season.
The First Week Of The NFL Season Was Pure Chaos. What Does That Mean For The Rest Of It? | Neil Paine (neil.paine@fivethirtyeight.com) | September 16, 2021 | FiveThirtyEightI translated each team’s winning percentage at the end of the regular season15 into a set of z-scores to find how many standard deviations a metropolitan area’s16 winning percentage was from the mean that season.
Detroit Is The Capital Of Bad Sports Right Now | Andrew Mooney | September 13, 2021 | FiveThirtyEightOne quick way to measure how much parity baseball has seen this year — relative to the same stage of previous seasons — is to look at the standard deviation of winning percentages.
Who’s Good And Bad In MLB This Year? We Don’t Really Know. | Neil Paine (neil.paine@fivethirtyeight.com) | May 10, 2021 | FiveThirtyEightOur analysis shows that the standard deviation of Elo’s prediction errors drops steadily over the first five races of a season, then falls at a slower rate over the next few races before plateauing by midseason.
In Formula One, Does The Driver Or Car Matter More? | Justin Moore | April 15, 2021 | FiveThirtyEight
And against the first target the accuracy observed was about .7 mils, in standard deviation.
Warren Commission (3 of 26): Hearings Vol. III (of 15) | The President's Commission on the Assassination of President KennedyFor each measurement, the coefficient of variation, standard deviation and probable error were computed.
American Weasels | E. Raymond HallThis is the estimated standard deviation of population where the estimate is made from area.
California Athabascan Groups | Martin A. BaumhoffThis is called the index of variability or "standard deviation."
The Social Direction of Evolution | William E. Kellicott
British Dictionary definitions for standard deviation
statistics a measure of dispersion obtained by extracting the square root of the mean of the squared deviations of the observed values from their mean in a frequency distribution
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 standard deviation
[ stăn′dərd ]
A statistic used as a measure of the dispersion or variation in a distribution, equal to the square root of the arithmetic mean of the squares of the deviations from the arithmetic mean.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Cultural definitions for standard deviation
In statistics, a measure of how much the data in a certain collection are scattered around the mean. A low standard deviation means that the data are tightly clustered; a high standard deviation means that they are widely scattered.
Notes for standard deviation
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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