poutcome

Poutcome is a term used in probability and statistics to refer to the probability distribution over the possible results of a random process. The word is a contraction of "probability of outcome" and is sometimes used informally in technical writing to describe the likelihood associated with each outcome. In formal treatment, the concept is captured by a probability mass function (for discrete outcomes) or a probability density function (for continuous outcomes). When the outcome space is finite and discrete, the poutcome assigns to each outcome o a probability p(o) = P(X = o), such that the sum of p(o) over all outcomes equals 1.

Examples illustrate the idea: a fair coin has poutcome {H: 0.5, T: 0.5}. A six-sided die has poutcome {1: 1/6, 2: 1/6, ..., 6: 1/6}. In broader use, poutcomes underlie decisions under uncertainty, risk assessment, statistical forecasting, and machine learning, where the distribution of possible results informs expected values, variances, and decisions.

Terminology and usage: Poutcome is not a standardized term in formal probability texts; more common language speaks of the probability distribution, PMF, or distribution of the random variable. Where encountered as a brand or product name, it may refer to an entity that provides or interprets outcome probabilities, depending on the source.

See also: probability distribution, probability mass function, random variable, expected value.