SPURIOUS CORRELATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does spurious correlation mean? 

• SPURIOUS CORRELATION (noun)
  The noun SPURIOUS CORRELATION has 1 sense:

1. a correlation between two variables (e.g., between the number of electric motors in the home and grades at school) that does not result from any direct relation between them (buying electric motors will not raise grades) but from their relation to other variables

  Familiarity information: SPURIOUS CORRELATION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPURIOUS CORRELATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A correlation between two variables (e.g., between the number of electric motors in the home and grades at school) that does not result from any direct relation between them (buying electric motors will not raise grades) but from their relation to other variables

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("spurious correlation" is a kind of...):

correlation; correlational statistics (a statistical relation between two or more variables such that systematic changes in the value of one variable are accompanied by systematic changes in the other)

Domain category:

statistics (a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters)