Definition:Ordinal Variable

This page is about Ordinal Variable. For other uses, see Ordinal.

Definition

An ordinal variable is a categorical variable whose values has a natural ordering.

Examples

Side Effects

Let $X$ be a random variable whose values take on the classification of side effects of a drug:

$\set {\text {none}, \text {slight}, \text {moderate}, \text {severe} }$

Then $X$ is classed as a ordinal variable.

Also see

• Definition:Nominal Variable

• Results about ordinal variables can be found here.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): contingency table
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): categorical variable
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): contingency table