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; see origin at 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

Distribution: Student’s t distribution with n – 1 degrees of freedom.

From Textbooks • Mar. 27, 2020

This conclusion comes directly from the derivation of the Student's t distribution by Mr. Gosset.

From Textbooks • Nov. 29, 2017

The Student's t distribution thus is tied to the normal distribution, but has degrees of freedom that come from those of the Chi squared distribution.

From Textbooks • Nov. 29, 2017

What the Student's t distribution does is spread out the horizontal axis so it takes a larger number of standard deviations to capture the same amount of probability.

From Textbooks • Nov. 29, 2017

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