Zipf's law

E595317

Zipf's law is an empirical statistical principle observing that in many datasets, such as word frequencies in natural language, the frequency of an item is inversely proportional to its rank in a frequency table.

All labels observed (2)

Label Occurrences
Zipf's law canonical 9
Zipf–Mandelbrot law 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf empirical law ⓘ
power law ⓘ
statistical law ⓘ
appliesTo city size distributions ⓘ
income distributions ⓘ
internet traffic ⓘ
natural language text ⓘ
population of cities ⓘ
scientific paper citations ⓘ
web site popularity ⓘ
word frequency distributions ⓘ
approximateDate 1940s ⓘ
category empirical statistical laws ⓘ
laws of linguistics ⓘ
coreStatement the frequency of an item is inversely proportional to its rank ⓘ
describes heavy-tailed distributions ⓘ
scale-free behavior ⓘ
explainedBy principle of least effort ⓘ
field complex systems ⓘ
information theory ⓘ
quantitative linguistics ⓘ
statistical linguistics ⓘ
hasGeneralization Zipf–Mandelbrot law ⓘ
linked to: Zipf's law

discrete Pareto distribution ⓘ
mathematicalForm f(r) = C / r^s ⓘ
f(r) ∝ 1/r ⓘ
namedAfter George Kingsley Zipf ⓘ
linked to: George K. Zipf
originatedBy George Kingsley Zipf ⓘ
linked to: George K. Zipf
property approximate rather than exact ⓘ
empirically observed ⓘ
scale invariant form ⓘ
publicationContext Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort ⓘ
relatedTo Benford's law ⓘ
Heaps' law ⓘ
Pareto distribution ⓘ
power-law distribution ⓘ
rank-size rule ⓘ
typicalExponent s ≈ 1 ⓘ
usedIn computational linguistics ⓘ
corpus linguistics ⓘ
data compression ⓘ
economics ⓘ
information retrieval ⓘ
language modeling ⓘ
natural language processing ⓘ
network science ⓘ
urban studies ⓘ
variable frequency ⓘ
rank ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (10)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

George K. Zipf → knownFor → Zipf's law ⓘ
subject linked to: George
George Kingsley Zipf → knownFor → Zipf's law ⓘ
subject linked to: Zipf
George Kingsley Zipf → formulated → Zipf's law ⓘ
subject linked to: Zipf
Zipf → hasEponymousConcept → Zipf's law ⓘ
Zipf's law → hasGeneralization → Zipf–Mandelbrot law ⓘ
linked to: Zipf's law