mode

n. The mode is a measure of central tendency that is the most frequently occurring score in a distribution. For example, the mode in the distribution of exam grades 75, 70, 90, 75, and 80 is 75, since it is the value that occurs most often (twice, compared to the other scores, which each occur only once). A distribution with two scores that occur equally and most often is called bimodal, for example, 3, 7, 11, 3, 8, 7, and a distribution with two or more scores that occur equally and most often is termed multimodal. Among the advantages of using the mode to describe the center of a distribution are the relative ease of computation and the ability to use the mode with nominal level data. For example, taking a sample of students' favorite course, psychology would be the mode if it were reported more often than the other classes.

- DS