bell-shaped curve
1
4.2
- noun
- /bɛl ʃeɪpt kɜrv/
- Specialized
:
curva en forma de campana
- The graph illustrated a bell-shaped curve, indicating that most students scored near the average on the test.
And instead of, and I saw medicine as being like a bell shaped curve where they were taking everybody to be the same.
- And instead of, and I saw medicine as being like a bell shaped curve where they were taking everybody to be the same.
- And that bell shaped curve continues all the way through where in the middle there may be a large group that calls themselves independents.
Examples
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Given some broad notion of what success is, we are all born at some point along a bell-shaped curve—at one end of which dwell the successful, at the other the unsuccessful—and we will pretty much stay where we are on it.
Academic text (2001) -
This same shape describes the distribution of people's height in the U.S. and is known as a bell-shaped curve.
Blog text (19) -
It's the famous bell shaped curve, which is thought by many people to represent a typical distribution.
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As we looked on, the psychologist drew a bell-shaped curve.
Academic text (1992) -
Note that the distribution resembles a bell-shaped curve with the highest population consisting of 6.2-6.4 million.
Academic text (2016) -
It is the familiar Gaussian bell-shaped curve for a normal distribution, but it is now on two orthogonal axes.
Academic text (2011) -
For the food industry respondents, more responses were identified as the level of importance increased, whereas responses from regulatory personnel presented a bell-shaped curve and peaked at "moderately important."
Academic text (1998) -
As a general matter, market-adjusted price changes, up and down, are distributed in a pattern closely resembling what would be produced by a normal (bell-shaped curve) probability distribution with a zero mean.
Academic text (2016) -
In statistics, most data points cluster around the mean, forming a bell-shaped curve.
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When analyzing the results, we observed a typical bell-shaped curve in the distribution of scores.
Synonyms
7
4.6
A curved line on a graph showing most results near the average and fewer at the ends
2
5.8
A bell-shaped curve where most values are near the average
1
7.5
A bell-shaped curve used in statistics to show how values spread
A bell-shaped line that shows most numbers near the middle and fewer far from it
A bell-shaped curve the same on both sides that shows how values are near the average
A smooth bell-shaped curve that shows how values spread around the average
How Peaked
- Specialized
- Specialized
1
4.2
40
5.5
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a curve shaped like a bell' is directly and literally compositional from 'bell-shaped' (rounded, bell-like) + 'curve' (a bent line). This straightforward shape-based compound follows normal English composition patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the intended statistical shape.
Etymology
The noun bell-shaped curve comes from the picture of the graph: it looks like a big bell, high in the middle and low at the ends, forming a smooth curve. So, when data make a bell-shaped curve, most values are near the 'average', which is why we use it for a 'normal' pattern.