Okuzeka
Statistics vocabulary · Estimation and Inference

Estimate

Meaning in statistics, with examples

/ˈestɪmeɪt/verbCore term

In statistics, estimate means: To calculate an approximate value for an unknown population quantity, such as a mean, a proportion or a regression coefficient, from sample data.

In Turkish: tahmin etmek, kestirmek

How it is used

Researchers estimate a parameter, a model or an effect; the result is 'an estimate' and the formula used is an 'estimator'. The verb ends in /eɪt/, the noun in /ət/. Common adjectives with the noun: rough, precise, unbiased, conservative.

Example sentences

  1. We estimated average household spending from a sample of 800 receipts.

  2. The model estimates that each extra year of schooling raises earnings by about 8%.

Common collocations

  • estimate a parameter
  • estimate the effect
  • rough estimate
  • unbiased estimate
  • estimated coefficient
  • point estimateA single number calculated from sample data as the best guess of a population value, for example a sample mean of 4.7 used to estimate the true mean.
  • confidence intervalA range of values, calculated from sample data, that is likely to contain the true population value; a 95% interval comes from a method that captures the true value in 95% of repeated samples.
  • standard errorThe standard deviation of an estimate, such as a sample mean, across repeated samples; it shows how precise the estimate is likely to be.
  • inferential statisticsMethods that use data from a sample to draw conclusions, with a measured level of uncertainty, about a larger population.

This word in other fields

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

More terms: Estimation and Inference

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: