Mean

How it is used

Reported with the standard deviation: in APA style, M = 3.42, SD = 0.87. The mean is sensitive to extreme values, so skewed data are often summarized with the median instead. Group means are compared with tests such as the t-test or ANOVA.

Example sentences

1. The mean age of participants was 21.4 years (SD = 2.1).

2. Group means were compared using an independent-samples t-test.

Common collocations

• mean score
• mean age
• group means
• mean and standard deviation

Related terms

• standard deviationA number that shows how spread out the values in a dataset are around the mean; a small value means most scores are close to the average.
• descriptive statisticsNumbers and tables that summarize the main features of a dataset, such as frequencies, percentages, means, ranges and standard deviations.
• quantitativeDescribing research that collects numerical data and uses statistics to measure, compare or test relationships, often with larger samples.
• dataFacts, numbers, recordings, texts or observations collected in a study and then analyzed to answer a research question.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• mean · Software Engineering
• mean · Data Science & Analytics
• mean · Statistics

More terms: Data and Analysis

• findings
• analysis
• significant
• draw a conclusion
• correlation
• thematic analysis
• account for
• interpret
• dataset
• p-value
• coding
• trend