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Statistics vocabulary · Regression and Correlation

Goodness of fit

Meaning in statistics, with examples

nounCommon term

In statistics, goodness of fit means: How well a model or a theoretical distribution matches the observed data, measured with statistics such as R-squared, chi-square or information criteria.

In Turkish: uyum iyiliği, model uyumu

How it is used

Often hyphenated before a noun: 'goodness-of-fit test', 'goodness-of-fit statistics'. In structural equation modelling, researchers report fit indices such as CFI and RMSEA. A good fit does not by itself mean that the model is the right explanation.

Example sentences

  1. A chi-square goodness-of-fit test suggested that the dice were not fair.

  2. Compare the goodness of fit of the two models using AIC.

Common collocations

  • goodness-of-fit test
  • model fit
  • fit indices
  • assess goodness of fit
  • poor fit
  • chi-square testA test used with counts in categories, most often to check whether two categorical variables are related or whether observed frequencies match the expected ones.
  • R-squaredThe share of the variation in the outcome variable that a regression model explains, ranging from 0 to 1; also called the coefficient of determination.
  • regressionA family of methods for modelling how an outcome variable changes with one or more predictor variables, used both to explain relationships and to make predictions.
  • distributionThe pattern showing which values a variable takes and how often each one occurs, often pictured as a histogram or a curve.

More terms: Regression and Correlation

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