Wiktionary
n. 1 (context statistics English) An expression of the lack of precision in the results obtained from a sample 2 An amount, beyond the calculated minimum, added for safety
WordNet
n. an index indicating the amount beyond the minimum necessary; "in engineering the margin of safety is the strength of the material minus the anticipated stress" [syn: margin of safety, safety margin]
Wikipedia
The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in a survey's results. It asserts a likelihood (not a certainty) that the result from a sample is close to the number one would get if the whole population had been queried. The likelihood of a result being "within the margin of error" is itself a probability, commonly 95%, though other values are sometimes used. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that the poll's reported results are close to the true figures; that is, the figures for the whole population. Margin of error applies whenever a population is incompletely sampled.
Margin of error is often used in non-survey contexts to indicate observational error in reporting measured quantities. In astronomy, for example, the convention is to report the margin of error as, for example, 4.2421(16) light-years (the distance to Proxima Centauri), with the number in parentheses indicating the expected range of values in the matching digits preceding; in this case, 4.2421(16) is equivalent to 4.2421 ± 0.0016. The latter notation, with the "±", is more commonly seen in most other science and engineering fields.
"Margin of Error" is the sixth episode of the fourth season of the HBO original series The Wire. Written by Eric Overmyer from a story by Ed Burns & Eric Overmyer, and directed by Dan Attias, it originally aired on October 15, 2006.
Usage examples of "margin of error".
In the case of the Great Pyramid, however, I knew that the ancient master-builders had found a way to narrow the margin of error to almost nothing.
There was always a margin of error, and as time passed that margin increases in geometric progression.
But whatever is done, should be done within a week, to allow a margin of error.
However, it would be a foolhardy general who did not allow for a margin of error.
His aerodynamic engineers had computed that all seventy-eight sails, taking advantage of the prevailing winds of the West Wind Drift, would be sufficient to nudge the Alamo into the Benguela, but with only a 12 percent margin of error.
Since this was well within its margin of error, it made no adjustments.
Counting backward, and allowing for a good margin of error, I formed the opinion that Yamamanama had been born at least fifty days before he was found on the river.
Roughly thirty trillion, with a margin of error bigger than all known space.
He had been counting paces and even given a generous margin of error, they should be at least two streets east of the prison by now.
If we switched the machine off at ten minutes to ten-which we did-and if it was registering an hour for every seven seconds that passed outside the field, then the field must have gone on around one o'clock last night, give or take a margin of error.
The file gave their estimated ages -- forty for the man, forty-three for the woman, two years' margin of error.
Sandra's notes admit there's a big margin of error in the software's estimate of blast impact.
The stellar drift in the intervening centuries is, uh, within the margin of error.