(Statist; Symb: s) The most common measure of dispersion in a frequency distribution; the variability of a set of measurements, numbers, or data points, obtained by taking the square root of the variance, q. v. Syn: Standard Error. Note: In a normal distribution 68. 2, 95. 4, and 99. 7% of the cases fall, respectively, between ±1, ±2, and ±3 standard deviations from the mean