Say it like this
Real examples
"We manually labeled 10,000 images to create the ground truth dataset for training our classifier."
"The test compares the output against ground truth to verify the sorting algorithm works correctly."
"We established ground truth by having domain experts verify the expected results before we validate the model."
Don't say this
Handle with care. Often confused with 'validation' or 'testing'. Ground truth is the verified correct reference data, not the act of testing itself.
Other forms
ground truth
"The ground truth for this experiment was established by human experts."
ground truth data
"We collected ground truth data from multiple sources to ensure reliability."
ground truth labels
"The ground truth labels help us measure model performance accurately."
Often used with
Similar words
Opposites
Practice
Try it
4 quick exercises
1. You need to verify that your recommendation system works correctly. How would you express this?
2. Before we can evaluate the model accuracy, we need to establish _______ by having experts manually verify the data.
3. Which sentence uses ground truth incorrectly?
4. Rewrite this tech sentence using ground truth: 'We need to check if our predictions match what we know is the correct answer.'
Questions
Quick poll
Have you said "ground truth" in a standup this week?
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