Statistics

How to spell statistics

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce statistics

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does statistics mean?

1. nounThe branch of mathematics concerned with collecting, analysing, and interpreting numerical data.
2. nounA set of numerical facts or figures collected and presented together.

Statistics in a sentence

• She studied statistics as part of her economics degree.

• The report quoted statistics on unemployment across the region.

• A solid grasp of statistics helps researchers avoid misleading conclusions.

• Crime statistics for the city fell sharply last year.

Where does statistics come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin word status, which meant 'condition' or 'standing' and also gave us the political sense of 'the state'. In the eighteenth century German scholars coined Statistik to describe the study of facts about the state, things a government needed to know such as population, trade, and taxation. That term itself drew on the Latin statisticus, an adjective relating to affairs of state. English adopted the word around the 1770s, at first meaning the collection of facts about a country, before it broadened to mean the mathematical analysis of numerical data of any kind. The buried link to 'state' explains the spelling: the cluster of repeated 's' and 't' sounds (sta-tis-tics) trips people up, but remembering the root 'status' anchors the opening 'stat'.

How the word is built

• statist- (from Latin status: condition, the state)
• -ics (suffix forming a field of study or body of facts)