kurtosis
/kɚˈtoʊ.sɪs/noun
kurtosis is spelled K-U-R-T-O-S-I-S: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 124,184th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, kurtosis means “A measure of "heaviness of the tails" of a probability distribution, defined as the fourth cumulant divided by the square of the variance of the…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of kurtosis is kurtoses or kurtosises.
How many letters and syllables are in kurtosis?
| Letters | 8: K-U-R-T-O-S-I-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 17 million words; the 124,184th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is kurtosis?
Kurtosis appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 124,184th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce kurtosis?
- UK /kəˈtəʊ.sɪs/
- UK /ˌkɜːˈtəʊ.sɪs/
- US /kɚˈtoʊ.sɪs/
Kurtosis has 3 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What rhymes with kurtosis?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as kurtosis from its last stressed vowel (/oʊsɪs/):
- prognosis
- sclerosis
- psychosis
- fibrosis
- apoptosis
- necrosis
- thrombosis
- stenosis
- osmosis
- symbiosis
- scoliosis
- mitosis
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of kurtosis
- kurtoses plural
- kurtosises plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does kurtosis mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A measure of "heaviness of the tails" of a probability distribution, defined as the fourth cumulant divided by the square of the variance of the probability distribution.
- 2
Excess kurtosis: the difference between a given distribution's kurtosis and the kurtosis of a normal distribution.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Kurtosis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense measure of "tail heaviness":
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | kurtosis, coefficient d'aplatissement |
| German | Kurtosis, Wölbung |
| Portuguese | curtose |
| Spanish | curtosis |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does kurtosis come from?
Coined by English mathematician, biometrician, and eugenicist Karl Pearson c. 1895 (published 1899 in "On certain Properties of the Hypergeometrical Series, and so on the fitting of such series to Observation Polygons in the Theory of Chance", Phil. Mag.). From Ancient Greek κύρτωσις (kúrtōsis, “a bulging, convexity”), from κυρτός (kurtós, “bulging, convex”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).