Contents
English
Etymology
From Latin expectationem, from expectare.
Pronunciation
Noun
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Singular expectation |
Plural expectations |
expectation (plural expectations)
- The act or state of expecting or looking forward to an event as about to happen.
- That which is expected or looked for.
- The prospect of the future; grounds upon which something excellent is expected to occur; prospect of anything good to come, esp. of property or rank.
- The value of any chance (as the prospect of prize or property) which depends upon some contingent event.
- (statistics) The first moment; the long-run average value of a variable over many independent repetitions of an experiment.
- (colloquial statistics) the arithmetic mean
- (medicine) (rare) The leaving of a disease principally to the efforts of nature to effect a cure.
Usage notes
- (value of any chance): Expectations are computed for or against the occurrence of the event.
Synonyms
- (colloquial statistics, arithmetic mean): arithmetic mean; average
Related terms
See also
- (statistics): w:Expected value
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