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Data Science & Analytics vocabulary · Exploratory Analysis

Anomaly

Meaning in data science & analytics, with examples

/əˈnɑːməli/nounCommon term

In data science & analytics, anomaly means: A data point or pattern that clearly differs from what is expected, such as a sudden spike in sign-ups or a day with no orders at all.

In Turkish: anomali, olağandışı durum, sapma

How it is used

Anomaly detection systems monitor metrics and send alerts. You detect, investigate or explain an anomaly, which may come from a real event, a bug or broken tracking. The plural is anomalies and the adjective is 'anomalous'.

Example sentences

  1. The anomaly on 14 March turned out to be a bot hitting the sign-up page.

  2. Our anomaly detection flagged a 40% drop in payments within an hour.

Common collocations

  • anomaly detection
  • detect an anomaly
  • investigate an anomaly
  • data anomaly
  • outlierA value that is very far from most of the other values in a dataset, for example one order of 50,000 dollars among orders of around 40 dollars.
  • time seriesA set of measurements of the same thing recorded in order at regular time intervals, such as daily revenue or hourly website visits.
  • seasonalityA regular pattern in data that repeats over a fixed period, such as higher sales every December, more traffic on weekdays or a dip every summer.
  • data qualityHow accurate, complete, consistent and up to date data is, and therefore how far it can be trusted when people make decisions.

This word in other fields

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

More terms: Exploratory Analysis

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