Keskmistada

Keskmistada is an Estonian verb that means "to calculate the average" or "to find the mean." The term is derived from the noun "keskmine," which means "average" or "mean," and the verb-forming suffix "-tada," which indicates an action. In Estonian, verbs often end in -da for the infinitive, so keskmistada literally translates to "to average."

This verb is commonly used in mathematical, statistical, and everyday contexts when summarizing a set of numbers. For example, to find the mean of the test scores 85, 90, 78, one would say, "Mälu arv&entand: keskmistada need arvu." The process involves adding all the numbers together, counting how many numbers there are, and dividing the sum by that count. The resulting value is the average, known as "keskmine" in Estonian.

In academic writing, the verb occurs frequently in the methods section: "Andmed kirjeldati keskmistades" (data were summarized by averaging). In educational settings, teachers often instruct students to "keskmistada" as part of basic arithmetic lessons. While "keskmistada" is specifically about computing the arithmetic mean, Estonian also has related terms for median (“mediaan” or “keskminepunkt”) and mode (“modus” or “kõige sagedasem”), but these verbs are less commonly formed.

The word is part of everyday Estonian vocabulary and appears in texts ranging from elementary textbooks to statistical research papers. Keskmistada is also used metaphorically to describe balancing or averaging aspects of life, but such usage is less formal.