law of averages
1
3.9
- noun
- /lɔː əv ˈævərɪdʒɪz/
:
ley de promedios
Examples
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Police work's all about the law of averages.
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The law of averages caught up with you.
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The law of averages says you will survive.
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It is the law of averages, and it just goes to show that when you poll any sizable population of folks, they will not agree on anything 100%.
Blog text (4) -
According to the law of averages, if you keep practicing, you will eventually improve your skills.
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The law of averages suggests that if you flip a coin multiple times, the number of heads and tails will balance out over time.
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He believed in the law of averages, thinking that after losing several times, his luck would surely turn around.
Synonyms
1
5.9
When a sample gets larger, its average gets closer to the average of the whole group
The average of a large random sample gets close to the true value for the whole group
The average of many separate random results becomes almost always close to the true average
A theorem that says the average of many independent random results almost certainly equals the true average
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase names a rule or principle about ‘averages’ built from the literal constituents: 'law' (a rule) + 'of averages' (about average outcomes), so the meaning is directly inferable as a rule concerning averages. This compositional noun phrase follows normal English patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the parts should understand it.
Etymology
Law of averages may come from old gamblers and people who counted many results and saw that, after many tries, the numbers tended to move toward the usual amount. People treated that idea like a rule (a law) about the averages, so law of averages means believing that, over many tries, things will 'even out' or 'match the average'.