Probability

The word probability derives from the Latin probare (to prove, or to test).

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Informally, probable is one of several words applied to uncertain events or knowledge,

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being more or less interchangeable with likely, risky, hazardous, uncertain, and doubtful, depending on the context.

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Chance, odds, and bet are other words expressing similar notions.

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As with the theory of mechanics which assigns precise definitions to such everyday terms as work and force,

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so the theory of probability attempts to quantify the notion of probable.

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