histogram

histogram

English

A histogram

Alternative forms

• histogramme

Etymology

Probably from Ancient Greek ἱστός (histós, “mast”) + -γραμμα (-gramma), although it is sometimes claimed to have been derived from historical + diagram; coined in 1891 by English mathematician Karl Pearson.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɪstəˌɡɹæm/

Noun

histogram (plural histograms)

1. (statistics) A graphical display of numerical data in the form of upright bars, with the area of each bar representing frequency.
   • 1983, Alan Meier, Janice Wright, Arthur H. Rosenfeld, Supplying Energy Through Greater Efficiency: The Potential for Conservation, University of California Press, page 39,

     Such distinctions, however, require detailed information, such as histograms of the distribution of energy use among residential customers, both by month and by year.

   • 2005, D. W. Scott, S. R. Sain, Multidimensional density estimation, C. R. Rao, E. J. Wegman, J. L. Solka (editors) Data Mining and Data Visualization, Elsevier, page 237,

     The use of the piecewise linear frequency polygon (FP) in place of the underlying histogram would seem mainly a graphical advantage.

   • 2017, David R. Anderson, Dennis J. Sweeney, Thomas A. Williams, Jeffrey D. Camm, James J. Cochran, Essentials of Statistics for Business and Economics, Cengage Learning, page 44,

     A histogram is constructed by placing the variable of interest on the horizontal axis and the frequency, relative frequency or percent frequency on the vertical axis. […] Histograms for data found in applications are never perfectly symmetric, but the histogram for many applications may be roughly symmetric.

Derived terms

• color histogram / colour histogram
• histogramatic
• image histogram

Translations

graphical display

Bulgarian: хистогра́ма f (histográma) Catalan: histograma m Chinese: Mandarin: 直方圖／直方图 (zh) (zhífāngtú), 柱狀圖／柱状图 (zhùzhuàngtú) Czech: histogram (cs) m Danish: histogram n Dutch: histogram (nl) n Estonian: histogramm (et) Finnish: histogrammi (fi) French: histogramme (fr) m German: Histogramm (de) n Greek: ιστόγραμμα (el) n (istógramma) Hungarian: hisztogram (hu) Icelandic: súlurit n, stuðlarit n Irish: histeagram m Macedonian: хистограм m (histogram) Maori: kauwhata pouhere Polish: histogram (pl) m Portuguese: histograma m Russian: гистогра́мма (ru) f (gistográmma) Spanish: histograma m Swedish: histogram (sv) n Tagalog: taladalasan Vietnamese: biểu đồ cột

See also

• bar chart
• vertical line diagram

Verb

histogram (third-person singular simple present histograms, present participle histogramming, simple past and past participle histogrammed)

1. (transitive) To represent (data) as a histogram.

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Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɦɪstoɡram]

Noun

histogram m

1. histogram