Which of the following is not a central tendency measure?

• A. Mean
• B. Median
• C. Mode
• D. Standard Deviation

Answer: (D)

Central tendency describes a value that represents the dataset as a whole. The mean, median, and mode all provide a single number that summarizes where most data points sit: the mean is the arithmetic average, the median is the middle value when the data are ordered, and the mode is the most frequent value. In contrast, standard deviation measures how spread out the data are around that central value. It tells you about dispersion, not a single representative value. For example, with data like 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, the mean is 2.4, the median is 2, and the mode is 2; the standard deviation would describe how far the individual numbers typically lie from the mean. Because it describes spread rather than a central value, standard deviation is not a central tendency measure.