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Statistics vocabulary · Probability

Mutually exclusive

Meaning in statistics, with examples

adjectiveCommon term

In statistics, mutually exclusive means: Describes events or categories that cannot happen or be true at the same time, such as rolling a 2 and rolling a 5 on a single throw of a die.

In Turkish: ayrık, birbirini dışlayan

How it is used

In probability, P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B) when A and B are mutually exclusive. In survey design, answer options should be mutually exclusive (no overlap) and exhaustive (covering all cases), e.g. age bands 18–24 and 25–34, not 18–25 and 25–35.

Example sentences

  1. Make sure the income categories are mutually exclusive; right now someone earning exactly 20,000 fits two boxes.

  2. Since the events are mutually exclusive, we simply add their probabilities.

Common collocations

  • mutually exclusive events
  • mutually exclusive and exhaustive
  • mutually exclusive categories
  • independent eventsEvents where knowing that one has happened does not change the probability of the other; for two such events, P(A and B) = P(A) × P(B).
  • probabilityA number between 0 and 1 that expresses how likely an event is: 0 means it cannot happen and 1 means it is certain.
  • conditional probabilityThe probability that an event happens given that another event has already happened, written P(A | B) and read 'the probability of A given B'.
  • questionnaireThe printed or online form containing the set of questions that respondents answer in a survey.

More terms: Probability

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