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Definition of discriminant function in English:

discriminant function

Pronunciation /dəˈskrimənənt ˈfəNG(k)SHən/ /dəˈskrɪmənənt ˈfəŋ(k)ʃən/

noun

Statistics

  • A function of several variates used to assign items into one of two or more groups. The function for a particular set of items is obtained from measurements of the variates of items which belong to a known group.

    ‘The second discriminant function differentiated the HU group from the other two groups.’
    • ‘The discriminant function that separates the two groups best is statistically significant at the 5% level.’
    • ‘These lineages were characterized by means of a discriminant function separating the putative ancestral sample from the youngest sample of one of the species.’
    • ‘Of 97 students who did not meet state benchmark standards, the discriminant function accurately predicted 88 cases.’
    • ‘The discriminant function was deemed significant at the 0.01 level.’