Mode
This page provides the definition for a mathematics term.
About this resource
A glossary of terms used in mathematics.
Mode
A value in a distribution of a numerical variable that occurs more frequently than other values.
As a measure of centre the mode is less useful than the mean or median because some distributions have more than one mode and other distributions, where no values are repeated, have no mode.
It is recommended that a graph of the distribution is used to check the appropriateness of the mode as a measure of centre and to emphasise its meaning as a feature of the distribution.
Example
The number of days in a week that rain fell in Grey Lynn, Auckland, from Monday 2 January 2006 to Sunday 31 December 2006 is recorded in a frequency table and displayed on a bar graph.
| Number of days with rain | Number of weeks |
|---|---|
| 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
2 5 5 5 19 6 6 4 |
| Total | 52 |
The mode is 4 days with rain per week.
Curriculum achievement objectives references
Statistical investigation: Levels 5, 6, 7, 8
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