Word
conjugacy
Phoneticscon·ju·ga·cy
Definition
n. a mathematical connection where an updated belief ends up having the exact same convenient formula shape as the starting belief.
n. a property in Bayesian statistics where the posterior distribution belongs to the same parametric algebraic family as the prior distribution when paired with a given likelihood.
Examples
“Using a beta distribution with a binomial experiment gives mathematical conjugacy, making calculations easy.”
“Conjugacy allows Bayesian models to update predictions analytically with pen and paper without needing slow numerical simulations.”
“Dirichlet-multinomial conjugacy facilitates closed-form Gibbs sampling in classical topic models such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation.”
Examples
simple
“Using a beta distribution with a binomial experiment gives mathematical conjugacy, making calculations easy.”
contextual
“Conjugacy allows Bayesian models to update predictions analytically with pen and paper without needing slow numerical simulations.”
complex
“Dirichlet-multinomial conjugacy facilitates closed-form Gibbs sampling in classical topic models such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation.”
Etymology
From Latin conjugatio ('a yoking together, combination'), from conjugare ('to yoke together'), from com- ('together') + jugum ('yoke'). Introduced to Bayesian statistics by Raiffa and Schlaifer in 1961.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Domains
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/conjugacy