t distribution

American

[tee dis-truh-byoo-shuhn] / ˈti dɪs trəˌbyu ʃən /

Or t-distribution

noun

Statistics.

a bell-shaped probability distribution that is flatter or more stretched out than the normal distribution.

t distribution British

noun

See Student's t

"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 t distribution

First recorded in 1955–60; Student's t distribution

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.

Compare the standard normal distribution to the Student’s t distribution, centered at zero.

From Textbooks • Mar. 27, 2020

As the number surveyed increases, the area to the left of –1 for the Student’s t distribution approaches the area for the standard normal distribution.

From Textbooks • Mar. 27, 2020

The test statistic is written as a student's t distribution, but if the sample size is larger enough so that the degrees of freedom are greater than 30 we may again use the normal distribution.

From Textbooks • Nov. 29, 2017

Mathematically, as the degrees of freedom increase, the t distribution approaches the standard normal distribution.

From Textbooks • Nov. 29, 2017

He therefore created the Student's t distribution as a ratio of the normal distribution and Chi squared distribution.

From Textbooks • Nov. 29, 2017

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023