random error

noun

, Statistics.

1. an error that has a random distribution and can be attributed to chance.

Word History and Origins

Origin of random error¹

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

When you take two measurements of the same thing and the process has been subject to random error, you tend not to get the same result.

From Literature

The bell curve is a theoretical ideal of the pattern produced by random error.

From Literature

If the characteristics of a population are normally distributed, in other words are clustered around an average in the shape of a bell curve, and if the bell curve is produced through random error, then Quételet argued, the variation in human characteristics can be seen as errors from a paradigm.

From Literature

Although that was most likely just a random error - unsurprising perhaps, given the volume of interest.

From BBC

But it was not a random error, either.

From New York Times