weightWith

Weightwith is a term encountered in data processing and mathematical discussions to describe the operation of applying a weight factor to a value in order to influence its influence in an aggregate calculation. It is not a standardized term with a single formal definition, but is often used as a shorthand in both theory and code to denote a weighted quantity.

Formally, weightWith(w, x) denotes the result of weighting a quantity x by a weight w. In scalar form, weightWith(w, x) = w × x. In vector form, weightWith(w, x) = w ⊙ x, where ⊙ denotes element-wise multiplication, provided w and x have compatible dimensions. When the weight is a function rather than a fixed value, a similar idea applies: weightWith can represent applying w(i) to x_i for each element i.

Applications and usage include weighting observations, features, or losses in statistics and machine learning. For example, in a weighted average, weights w_i scale the contributions of corresponding values x_i, yielding sum(w_i x_i) / sum(w_i). In loss calculations, a weighted loss sum_i w_i L(y_i, f(x_i)) emphasizes some data points more than others. In programming libraries, weightWith may appear as a function that multiplies inputs by a given weight or applies a weight function to an input vector.

See also: weighting, weighted average, kernel weighting, importance sampling. Limitations include the need for appropriate weights; misapplied weights can distort results or bias interpretations.