probabilities

Noun

probability (countable and uncountable, plural probabilities)

1. The state of being probable.
   • For, a man may with as great probability derive the Scots pedigree from the Gods, as from Scota that ſuppoſed and counterfeit daughter of the Ægyptian King Pharao, wedded (forſooth) unto Gaithelus, the ſonne of Cecrops founder of Athens. But, as this conceit ariſing from the unskilfulneſſe of...1610, William Camden, “Scoti”, in Philémon Holland, transl., Britain, or A Chorographicall Description of the Most Flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, […], London: […] [Eliot’s...
2. An event that is likely to occur.
   • These waters wash from the rocks such glistering tinctures, that the ground in some places seemeth as guilded, that better iudgements then ours might haue been perswaded, they contained more then probabilities.1625, Capt. John Smith, The Trve Travels, Adventvres and Observations, volume I, Richmond: William W. Gray, published 1819, book II, page 115
3. The relative likelihood of an event happening.
   • Hoyle said that the probability of life originating on Earth is no greater than the chance that a hurricane, sweeping through a scrapyard, would have the luck to assemble a Boeing 747.2006, Richard Dawkins, “Why there almost certainly is no God”, in The God Delusion, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, page 113
4. A number, between 0 and 1, expressing the precise likelihood of an event happening.
   • The probability of an event A occurring is denoted P(A).