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Glite Dictionary
deciban

deciban

9.9
A small unit used to show how strong evidence is in statistics and information theory
  • noun
  • /ˈdɛsɪbæn/
  • Specialized
: decibán
  • In information theory, a deciban allows scientists to quantify the weight of evidence in a precise manner.

Examples

  • The researcher measured the evidence for the hypothesis in decibans to assess its strength.

  • For the statistical analysis, they reported results in decibans to show the log-odds more clearly.

  • And later on they used half decibans as their popular a as a unit.

Surface Forms

deciban singular
decibans plural

Morphology

deciban = ban (transparent) = deci + ban

Formed by the productive decimal prefix 'deci-' (one tenth) added to the unit 'ban', so the meaning is directly 'one tenth of a ban'.

Etymology

Deciban comes from the prefix deci- meaning 'one tenth' and ban, a 'unit of information' used for the weight of evidence. A helpful way to remember it is to think of decibel, where deci- also means 'one tenth'. So, a deciban is one tenth of a ban, and it is used to show small, clear steps in how much the evidence changes the odds for an idea.