Bayes' theorem
name
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 (statistics) a theorem describing how the conditional probability of a set of possible causes for a given observed event can be computed from knowledge of the probability of each cause and the conditional probability of the outcome of each cause wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A theorem expressed as an equation that describes the conditional probability of an event or state given prior knowledge of another event.
"The starting point for many techniques in probabilistic classification is Bayes' theorem, which provides a way of relating evidence to a hypothesis."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The starting point for many techniques in probabilistic classification is Bayes' theorem, which provides a way of relating evidence to a hypothesis."
Etymology
Named after English mathematician Thomas Bayes (1701–1761), who developed an early formulation. The modern expression of the theorem is due to Pierre-Simon Laplace, who extended Bayes's work but was apparently unaware of it.