P-value

How it is used

Written with a hyphen and a lowercase p, often in italics. A small p-value, commonly below 0.05, is taken as evidence against the null hypothesis. You calculate, report or look at the p-value.

Example sentences

1. The p-value was 0.03, so the result is significant at the 5% level.

2. Don't stop the test early just because the p-value dipped below 0.05 on day two.

Common collocations

• low p-value
• calculate the p-value
• report the p-value
• p-value threshold

Related terms

• statistical significanceA sign that a result is unlikely to be explained by random chance alone, usually judged by whether the p-value falls below a threshold chosen in advance, such as 0.05.
• null hypothesisThe default assumption in a statistical test that there is no effect or no difference, for example that a new design does not change the conversion rate.
• confidence intervalA range of values, calculated from sample data, that is likely to contain the true value; a 95% interval comes from a method that captures the true value 95% of the time.
• hypothesisA specific, testable statement about what you expect to happen and why, written down before an experiment or analysis starts.

This word in other fields

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

• p-value · Data Science & Analytics
• p-value · Statistics
• p-value · Academic English & Research

More terms: Machine Learning and Data Processing

• artificial intelligence
• machine learning
• model
• dataset
• training data
• label
• train
• supervised learning
• neural network
• deep learning
• loss function
• overfitting