Meanings
nounKendall tau distance (plural Kendall tau distances)
plural Kendall tau distances
- A distance function that counts the pairwise disagreements between two ranking lists and thus determines how dissimilar the lists are.
Origin
Devised by Maurice Kendall.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
Kendall tau distance. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kendall%20tau%20distance
MLA
“Kendall tau distance.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kendall%20tau%20distance. Accessed November 5, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Kendall tau distance,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kendall%20tau%20distance.
Source: Kendall tau distance on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.