Other forms: graphs
A graph is a drawing showing how two quantities relate. Plot a graph, read the graph, a line graph.
The axes carry the two quantities and the line or bars show the relation, which is why a graph makes a pattern visible that a table hides. Choosing where an axis starts is the commonest way of misleading with one. In mathematics, graph theory studies networks of points and connections, which is a quite different sense. Note graph paper; and that graph is short for graphic formula.
1noungraphA drawing showing how two quantities relate.
“The graph shows how sales rose each month.”
2nounnetworkA network of points and connections, in mathematics.
“In the graph, each dot is a city and each line is a direct flight.”
graph is a diagram.
Graph is a clipping of graphic formula, from 1878, from Greek graphein, to write. Graphic, photograph and paragraph come from the same writing.
Proto-Indo-European
*gerbʰ-
English, today
graph
a clipping of graphic formula. From 1878; verb from 1889.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA