Definitions

1. noun

a freshwater or saltwater fish, especially a edible one

“The chef ordered fresh poisson from the local market.”

2. noun

a kind of French naval mine

“During the war, the enemy laid a series of poisson mines in the harbor.”

3. noun

a random variable in probability theory, especially one that is used to model the distribution of a quantity

“The statistician used the Poisson distribution to model the number of defects in the manufacturing process.”

4. noun

a type of statistical distribution, especially a discrete probability distribution that expresses the probability of events occurring within a fixed interval of time or space

“The researcher used the Poisson distribution to analyze the data on the frequency of earthquakes in the region.”

5. proper noun

the surname of several people, including Alain Poisson, a French mathematician and physicist

“Alain Poisson made significant contributions to the field of quantum mechanics.”