How is the term "mean" commonly defined?

The term "mean" is commonly defined as the arithmetic average of a set of numbers. This involves summing all the values in a dataset and then dividing that sum by the number of values present. The mean is a central tendency measure used to represent a typical value within the dataset, and it is particularly useful for understanding the overall trends when the data are symmetrically distributed without extreme values, or outliers, that could skew the average.

In contrast, the middle value of an ordered dataset refers to the median, which is not the same as the mean. The mode indicates the most frequently occurring number, while the definition of a value that occurs halfway in a dataset is also related to the median rather than the mean. Understanding the mean is essential in statistical analysis as it provides a straightforward summary that helps interpret and compare data effectively.