What is "opinion poll"

n. A poll organized in an attempt to quantify public opinion on a subject.

n. an inquiry into public opinion conducted by interviewing a random sample of people [syn: poll, public opinion poll, canvass]

An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals.