degree of freedom

1. 1.

   (statistics) an unrestricted variable in a frequency distribution

   Broadervariable

   statistics

2. 2.

   one of the minimum number of parameters needed to describe the state of a physical system

   Broaderparameter

Questions about degree of freedom

What does degree of freedom mean?

degree of freedom means "(statistics) an unrestricted variable in a frequency distribution". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is degree of freedom a common word?

degree of freedom is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.