harmonic mean

noun

, Statistics.

1. the mean obtained by taking the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of a set of nonzero numbers.

harmonic mean

noun

1. the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of a set of specified numbers: the harmonic mean of 2, 3, and 4 is 3( 1 2 + 1 3 + 1 4 ) ^–1= 3 6 13

harmonic mean

1. The reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of a specified set of numbers.

Word History and Origins

Origin of harmonic mean¹

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Eventually, they categorized proportions into 10 different classes, with names like the harmonic mean.

From Literature

Once we had those three numbers for each of the starting Super Bowl quarterbacks, we averaged them together using the harmonic mean rather than a simple average.

From Washington Post