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In [[statistics]], '''latent variables''' (from [[Latin]]: [[present participle]] of ''lateo'', “lie hidden”) are [[Variable (mathematics)|variables]] that can only be [[Statistical inference|inferred]] indirectly through a [[mathematical model]] from other '''observable variables''' that can be directly [[observation|observed]] or [[measurement|measured]].<ref>Dodge, Y. (2003) ''The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms'', OUP. {{isbn|0-19-920613-9}}</ref> Such ''[[latent variable model]]s'' are used in many disciplines, including [[political science]], [[demography]], [[engineering]], [[medicine]], [[ecology]], [[physics]], [[machine learning]]/[[artificial intelligence]], [[bioinformatics]], [[chemometrics]], [[natural language processing]], [[management]], [[psychology]] and the [[social sciences]].
Latent variables may correspond to aspects of physical reality. These could in principle be measured, but may not be for practical reasons. Among the earliest expressions of this idea is Sir [[Francis Bacon]]'s classic [[polemic]] the ''[[Novum Organum]]'', itself a challenge
{{quote|But the latent process of which we speak, is far from being obvious to men’s minds, beset as they now are. For we mean not the measures, symptoms, or degrees of any process which can be exhibited in the bodies themselves, but simply a continued process, which, for the most part, escapes the observation of the senses.|Sir [[Francis Bacon]], ''[[Novum Organum]]''<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Bacon|author-first=Francis|title=Novum Organum|chapter=APHORISMS—BOOK II: ON THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE, OR THE REIGN OF MAN|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45988/45988-h/45988-h.htm}}</ref>
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