Glossary Term
Poisson Distribution
Performance MetricsEN
Definition
A distribution function used to describe the occurrence of rare events or to describe the sampling distribution of isolated counts in a continuum of time or space. This special probability distribution can apply to the number of discrete independent random events occurring in a given interval when knowing their average rate of occurrence over a very long interval.
Extended Notes
Source: National Cancer Institute, NCI Thesaurus 26.09d, C53212. NCI definition, reproduced without modification under CC BY 4.0. Source identity and definition checked automatically on 2026-10-18. No individual clinical interpretation or human reviewer is asserted.
Also Known As
Poisson Distribution