ergodicity.

The property by which long-run averages of a process represent corresponding averages across its possible states.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• assume ergodicity
• ergodicity of a process
• test an ergodicity assumption

On the page

The consistency argument relies on ergodicity rather than independence of every observation.

Without ergodicity, one long record may fail to represent the process's overall average.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal / analytical. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: MW explicitly lists noun ergodicity under ergodic and gives representative-process and recurrence formulations. University of Washington positive indexed excerpt and successful slower reading after timeout establish stationary ergodic time-average/ensemble-average convergence and warn by example that stationarity alone is insufficient. Retain statistical averaging scope; wider formal scope flagged. Individually useful in research, criticism, methodology or conceptual analysis. Definitions and examples are original; no mood or intensity assigned to neutral analytical concepts. Commonness is an editorial estimate, not a frequency statistic. Writing functions: conditions for inference from a long record, distinguishing stationarity from representativeness.