A few days ago
probablilty vs possibility?
i’m always confused between these 2 words. when and how to use them? thanks
Top 4 Answers
A few days ago
Favorite Answer
Probability equals, for example, the odds of landing on a six on a dice- the probability would be 1/6.
Possibility, for example, might be used to say, there is a possibility of rain. So it may or may not happen.
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A few days ago
Formally the difference between the words is that probability refers to the statistical odds of something happening while possibility simply means that it might happen. But when it is used as an idiom and we say that is more of a probability than a possibility, we are misusing probability to mean probable. The idiom means that something is more likely to happen than not.
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A few days ago
We tend to use “probability” in two different ways. The first is mathematical (the probability of winning the lottery is one in a million), the other is in the phrase “high probabilty”, which means something is very likely to happen.
“Possibility”, on the other hand, usually refers to something that just might happen. “There is a possibility that you might be in a car accident every time you drive.” (If you were to say “probability” here instead of “possibility”, it would make it sound like it was something likely to happen, instead of something that might.)
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A few days ago
Probability means how likely something is to happen, for example the probability of my computer exploding tomorow is not very high, where as possibility is if something CAN happen or not, it is possible that my computer might explode tomorow, but not very probable.
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