statistical
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of statistical
First recorded in 1590–1600; statistic(s) + -al 1
Explanation
If you can say it with numbers, then it is probably statistical. Statistical information (or "stats") can tell the chance of rain tomorrow or what percentage or your allowance gets spent on texting. Statistics is the science of gathering numerical information in large amounts and using it to make broad deductions — such as the one that famously declared the average British family in the 1980s had 2.4 children. Of course, that was nonsense, and the statisticians later amended it — to 1.6. Statistical answers, as the previous example shows, often need to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Vocabulary lists containing statistical
Nothing But the Truth
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How It Went Down
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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.
These subtle effects are difficult to identify individually, so astronomers rely on statistical methods to detect them.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
That could be much more than a statistical oddity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
The fact that the defense secretary is different is simply a statistical reality.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
Trained on stupendous amounts of human-generated sources, these LLMs use statistical algorithms to produce results that are all but indistinguishable from human creations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
This was the biggest victory for statistical mechanics and the wave theory of light.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
