What is the term used to describe the average of a set of numbers?

The term used to describe the average of a set of numbers is the mean. The mean is calculated by adding together all the values in a dataset and then dividing that sum by the number of values. This calculation effectively provides a measure of central tendency, giving an overall indication of where the center of the data lies.

In contrast, the mode refers to the number that appears most frequently in a dataset, which may not represent the average at all, especially in cases where the dataset has many unique values or is otherwise varied. The median is the middle value when the numbers are arranged in order, which is useful for understanding the central tendency in skewed distributions but does not represent the average. The range, meanwhile, describes the difference between the highest and lowest values in a dataset, providing information about the spread of the values rather than their average.

Thus, the mean offers a systematic way to calculate and understand the average in a numerical set.