Definition: The act of something happening; occurrence.

Alright class, settle down, let’s take a look! You’ve got the dictionary definition – “the act of something happening; occurrence” – and that gives us a good start. But what does ‘incidence’ really mean? Think of it this way: Incidence is about how often something happens. It's not just that it happened, but how many times or how frequently it occurs. Let me give you a little rhyme to help you remember: “Incident’s a single event, you see, But incidence tells us how frequently!” Here are some ways we can break it down: In medicine: Incidence is used to measure the number of new cases of a disease within a specific population over a certain time period. Like saying "the incidence of flu this winter was high." In statistics: It’s about how often something appears in data – maybe the incidence of a particular word in a book, or the incidence of a certain weather pattern. More generally: It can just mean “occurrence” - “The incidence of rain today was quite pleasant.” Important difference: An incident is one specific event. Incidence focuses on the frequency of those events. Do you have any questions about this? Don't be shy, let’s discuss!