Word of the day: Stochastic

Stochastic

[stə-KAS-tik]

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Greek, mid-17th century

Randomly determined; having a random probability distribution or pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely.

Examples of stochastic in a sentence

"I painted stars on my ceiling in a stochastic pattern."

"Matthew excelled at statistics, especially analyzing stochastic patterns."

About Stochastic

This adjective originated from the Greek word "stokhazesthai," which means "to aim at, guess." It evolved from the word "stokhos" ("aim").

Did you Know?

Have you ever wondered how poll numbers and surveys displayed on the news are collected? Statisticians collect and analyze stochastic data so that ordinary people can understand the large-scale facts and figures. When you hear a figure such as "86% of Americans eat 5 pounds of butter a year," it doesn't mean that every single person in the country was polled. Instead, a random sampling of data was taken to get to that number in a stochastic analysis. It may not be precisely accurate, but it's a decent representation.