statistic
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of statistic
First recorded in 1815–20; back formation from statistics
Explanation
A statistic is a numerical piece of information. If you are trying to prove a point, and you want your argument to have a sense of authority, you might want to use a statistic to back up your claim. A statistic is a single piece of information represented by a number. “Water makes up 70% of the Earth’s surface,” for instance, is a statistic. A statistic is like a fact that is reached through a mathematical process. A population figure is the most common statistic you will encounter. When made plural, statistics means either a collection of statistics or the science of creating and interpreting statistics, as in “His favorite course in college was Statistics.”
Vocabulary lists containing statistic
Argumentative Writing
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Argumentative Writing, List 1
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Tears of a Tiger
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Both sides' refusal to apply pressure when the opposition attempted to tease them out is best illustrated by a statistic that looks to quantify how intensely a team presses.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
Another relevant statistic is the performance of a hypothetical portfolio that each year invests in the U.S. stock with the largest market cap as of the end of the previous year.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026
At first blush, his lifetime Wins Above Replacement of 0.3 would indicate that he’s little better than the fictional minor league “replacement player” to which MLB players are compared in calculating the statistic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
That statistic comes from the LAHSA, a city-county joint agency that sends trained volunteers into the streets each February to count the people living there.
From Slate ● Jun. 3, 2026
Did you ever hear the statistic about Super Bowl night?
From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King
Robotaxis are a key area of interest for Tesla investors, and the company offered up a number of updated statistics on Wednesday, including that it has logged more than 380,000 miles of unsupervised robotaxi trips.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
The gains people are getting from AI use at home are unlikely to show up in standard economic statistics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
The BEA has described the coming changes as routine adjustments necessary to make the statistics as faithful as possible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Official statistics are lacking, but media in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have reported an increasing number of victims.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Consider the mortality statistics in the City of London in 1632.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.