Random variate

This page is currently being merged. After a discussion, consensus to merge this page into Realization (probability) was found. You can help implement the merge by following the instructions at Help:Merging and the resolution on the discussion. Process started in October 2022.

In probability and statistics, a random variate or simply variate is a particular outcome or realization of a random variable; the random variates which are other outcomes of the same random variable might have different values (random numbers).

A random deviate or simply deviate is the difference of a random variate with respect to the distribution central location (e.g., mean), often divided by the standard deviation of the distribution (i.e., as a standard score).^[1]

Random variates are used when simulating processes driven by random influences (stochastic processes). In modern applications, such simulations would derive random variates corresponding to any given probability distribution from computer procedures designed to create random variates corresponding to a uniform distribution, where these procedures would actually provide values chosen from a uniform distribution of pseudorandom numbers.

Procedures to generate random variates corresponding to a given distribution are known as procedures for (uniform) random number generation or non-uniform pseudo-random variate generation.

In probability theory, a random variable is a measurable function from a probability space to a measurable space of values that the variable can take on. In that context, those values are also known as random variates or random deviates, and this represents a wider meaning than just that associated with pseudorandom numbers.