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Data Science & Analytics vocabulary · Statistics for Analysis

Distribution

Meaning in data science & analytics, with examples

/ˌdɪstrɪˈbjuːʃən/nounCore term

In data science & analytics, distribution means: The way the values of a variable are spread out, showing which values are common, which are rare and how far apart they are; often viewed as a histogram.

In Turkish: dağılım

How it is used

You look at, plot, describe or compare a distribution. Analysts describe its shape with words such as normal, skewed, wide, narrow or long-tailed. Named examples include the normal distribution and the Poisson distribution.

Example sentences

  1. Let's look at the distribution of order values before we pick a threshold.

  2. The distribution of session lengths has a very long right tail.

Common collocations

  • normal distribution
  • plot the distribution
  • skewed distribution
  • distribution of values
  • histogramA chart that shows the distribution of one numeric variable by dividing its range into intervals, called bins, and drawing a bar for how many values fall in each.
  • skewedDescribes a distribution that is not symmetrical and has a long tail of values on one side, such as income data where a few people earn far more than most.
  • standard deviationA measure of how spread out values are around the mean: a small value means most values are close to the average, a large one means they vary a lot.
  • percentileThe value below which a given percentage of observations fall; for example, the 90th percentile of load time is the time within which 90% of page loads finish.

This word in other fields

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

More terms: Statistics for Analysis

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