Meanings
- mathematicsThe statistical tendency toward a fixed proportion in the results when an experiment is repeated a large number of times.
Near-synonym: law of large numbers (not always differentiated)
3 more examples
... as they will not have sufficient distribution of risk to permit the law of averages to play its part and a severe total loss may ...
1919, William David Winter, Marine Insurance: Its Principles and Practice, McGraw-Hill, page 96Second Law - The Law of Averages. Whenever something (such as throwing a die) can have more than one result, if all the possible results have an equal chance ...
1971, Russell Langley, Practical Statistics Simply Explained, Courier Dover Publications, →ISBN, page 22It is upon the ideas of 'repeated experimentation' and the law of averages that many of our notions of chance are founded.
1986, Geoffrey Grimmett, Dominic Welsh, Probability: An Introduction, OUP, →ISBN, page 124Synonyms: law of large numbers
- informalAn imaginary or perceived "law" of probabilities which is wrongly used to predict results in the short-term.
This coin has landed on heads ten times, so by the law of averages it must land on tails next time.
1 more example
In the nature of things a good many somebodies are always in hospital, and the law of averages had picked on me to be one of them a week or so before. It might just as easily have been the week before that - in which case I'd not be writing now: I'd not be here at all.
1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 7 - A real or purported law from centuries past regarding the distribution of recompense after a loss at sea due to an act of God, said by some (but not others) to explain why the word average evolved a sense having to do with means, medians, modes, etc.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe statistical tendency toward a fixed proportion in the results when an experiment is repeated a large number of times.
Translations
Hungarian átlagok törvénye
- átlagok törvényestatistical tendency
Tagalog batas ng balasak
- batas ng balasakstatistical tendency
Cite this entry
law of averages. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/law%20of%20averages
“law of averages.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/law%20of%20averages. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “law of averages,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/law%20of%20averages.
Source: law of averages on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.