#1 India's Top IT Training Institute

×

About Uncodemy

Know more about who we are and what we stand for.

About Us

About Us

Discover our mission to equip individuals with essential IT skills and industry expertise.

Read More →
UnCodeMy Gallery

UnCodeMy Gallery

Explore highlights from our IT training sessions and success stories.

Read More →
×

Free Resources

Learn, practice and plan your career — bilkul free.

Tutorials

Tutorials

Step-by-step written tutorials to learn any technology at your own pace.

Read More →
Free Counselling

Free Counselling

Book a free video counselling session and pick the right course for you.

Read More →
Online Compiler

Online Compiler

Write, run and test your code online — no setup required.

Read More →

Machine Learning · Glossary

Machine Learning Glossary Key Terms Explained

A beginner-friendly machine learning glossary — key terms explained clearly, from supervised learning and features to overfitting, precision, recall, and MLOps.

Tracks
ML Glossary · Live Interactive
Category
—
Term group
Examples
—
Key terms
Focus
—
What you'll understand
Fundamentals → Modeling → Evaluation → Deployment
Click a category to browse the key terms — each one explained simply, with practical examples.

Home / Tutorials / AI & ML Guides / Machine Learning Glossary — Key Terms Explained

Machine Learning · Glossary

Machine Learning Glossary — Key Terms Explained

FUNDAMENTALS MODELING EVALUATION Fundamentals Supervised / Unsupervised Features & Labels Core concepts Modeling Gradient Descent Overfitting, Epochs Training process Evaluation Precision, Recall, F1 ROC-AUC, Drift Production quality
The ML glossary is organised into three layers — fundamentals, modeling, and evaluation — so you can learn terms in the right order.

Quick summary — machine learning glossary

Machine learning has its own vocabulary. This glossary covers the terms you'll meet most often — from foundational concepts like supervised learning and features, through training concepts like gradient descent and overfitting, to evaluation metrics like precision and recall, and production concepts like model drift and MLOps.

In this guide you will find:

  1. Fundamentals — supervised, unsupervised, features, labels.
  2. Modeling & training — gradient descent, epochs, overfitting, regularization.
  3. Evaluation — accuracy, precision, recall, F1, ROC-AUC.
  4. Deployment — inference, drift, MLOps, latency.
  5. How to use this glossary — practical tips for learners.

SECTION 01Overview — why an ML glossary helps

ML is a field where a small vocabulary unlocks a lot of understanding. Here's why a glossary matters:

Why It Matters What It Unlocks
Interviews Interviewers expect you to know the terms without hesitation
Reading papers and docs You can understand blogs, papers, and library documentation
Team communication You can follow discussions without constantly asking "what does that mean?"
Debugging You can name the problem — "overfitting" — and know how to fix it
Confident learning You stop getting stuck on jargon and focus on concepts
Key insight: You don't need to memorise every term. But you do need to understand the ~40 terms that come up in every ML course, interview, and project — and that's what this glossary covers.

SECTION 02Fundamentals — core concepts

These terms are the foundation of every ML discussion. Learn them first:

Term Simple Definition Example
Machine Learning Teaching computers to learn patterns from data Spam filters, recommendations
Supervised learning Learning from labelled data (input + answer) Predicting house prices
Unsupervised learning Finding patterns in unlabelled data Customer segmentation
Reinforcement learning Learning through trial and reward Game-playing agents, robots
Features Input variables a model learns from Age, income, location
Label / Target The answer the model tries to predict Price, churn (yes/no)
Training data Data used to learn 80% of your dataset
Test data Data used to evaluate after training Held-out 20%
Overfitting Model memorises training data, fails on new data 99% train accuracy, 60% test
Underfitting Model is too simple to learn the pattern Poor on both train and test
# Training vs test data — the basics
import pandas as pd
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split

# Load a dataset
df = pd.read_csv("churn.csv")

# Features (X) and label (y)
X = df.drop(columns=["churned"])   # features
y = df["churned"]                  # label (target)

# Split into training (80%) and test (20%)
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(
    X, y, test_size=0.2, random_state=42, stratify=y
)

print("Train:", X_train.shape)
print("Test: ", X_test.shape)
fundamentals.py
Key insight: If you only learn five terms from this section, make them: supervised learning, features, labels, overfitting, and underfitting. These appear in almost every ML conversation.

SECTION 03Modeling & training terms

These terms describe how models actually learn:

Term Simple Definition Why It Matters
Algorithm The procedure a model uses to learn Linear regression, decision tree, neural network
Gradient descent An optimisation method that improves the model step by step How models minimise error during training
Loss function Measures how wrong the model is MSE, cross-entropy
Learning rate How big a step to take during training Too high → unstable; too low → slow
Epoch One full pass through the training data More epochs = more learning (up to a point)
Batch size Number of samples per training step Affects speed and stability
Regularisation A technique to prevent overfitting L1, L2, dropout
Hyperparameter A setting you choose before training Learning rate, batch size, tree depth
Parameter / Weight A value the model learns Coefficients in a regression
Feature engineering Creating new, useful features from raw data Turning dates into "days since signup"
# Epochs and learning rate with sklearn
from sklearn.linear_model import SGDClassifier
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline

model = make_pipeline(
    StandardScaler(),
    SGDClassifier(
        loss="log_loss",
        learning_rate="constant",
        eta0=0.01,          # learning rate
        max_iter=20,        # ≈ epochs
        random_state=42,
    ),
)

model.fit(X_train, y_train)

# The model has now seen the training data
# 20 times (20 epochs) at learning rate 0.01.
training.py
Key insight: Learning rate, epochs, batch size, and regularisation are the four most common hyperparameters you'll tune. Understanding what each does makes tuning feel intuitive instead of random.

SECTION 04Evaluation & metrics

How do you know if a model is good? These metrics are how teams answer that:

Term Simple Definition When to Use
Accuracy Fraction of predictions that are correct Balanced classes
Precision Of predicted positives, how many were actually positive When false positives are costly
Recall Of actual positives, how many were correctly found When false negatives are costly
F1 score Harmonic mean of precision and recall When you need a balance of both
Confusion matrix Table of actual vs predicted labels Any classification problem
ROC-AUC How well the model separates classes across thresholds Ranking and probabilistic output
RMSE / MAE Average error in regression predictions Predicting continuous values
Cross-validation Evaluating on multiple train/test splits Small datasets, model selection
Baseline A simple reference model to beat Always compare against one
# Classification metrics
from sklearn.metrics import (
    accuracy_score, precision_score,
    recall_score, f1_score,
    confusion_matrix, roc_auc_score,
)

y_pred  = model.predict(X_test)
y_proba = model.predict_proba(X_test)[:, 1]

print("Accuracy: ", accuracy_score(y_test, y_pred))
print("Precision:", precision_score(y_test, y_pred))
print("Recall:   ", recall_score(y_test, y_pred))
print("F1:       ", f1_score(y_test, y_pred))
print("ROC-AUC:  ", roc_auc_score(y_test, y_proba))
print("Confusion matrix:")
print(confusion_matrix(y_test, y_pred))
metrics.py
Key insight: Accuracy is often the wrong metric. In a fraud problem with 99% normal transactions, a model that always says "no fraud" has 99% accuracy but zero recall — useless in practice.

SECTION 05Deployment & MLOps terms

Once a model leaves the notebook, these terms matter:

Term Simple Definition Example
Inference Using a trained model to make predictions Serving a churn score via an API
Batch inference Predicting in bulk on a schedule Nightly churn scores
Real-time inference Predicting per request Credit card fraud check
Model drift Model performance degrades because real data changes Post-pandemic shopping behaviour
Data drift Input data distribution shifts from training data New customer demographics
Latency Time to return a prediction Target: < 100ms for real-time
MLOps Practices and tools to deploy and maintain ML at scale CI/CD for models, monitoring, retraining
Feature store Central place for reusable, consistent features Feast, Tecton
A/B testing Comparing two model versions on live traffic New model on 10% of users
Retraining Training a model again on fresh data Weekly or triggered by drift
# FastAPI — serve a trained model
from fastapi import FastAPI
from pydantic import BaseModel
import joblib

app = FastAPI()
model = joblib.load("churn_model.joblib")

class Customer(BaseModel):
    tenure_months:   int
    monthly_charges: float
    support_tickets: int

@app.post("/predict")
def predict(c: Customer):
    features = [[
        c.tenure_months,
        c.monthly_charges,
        c.support_tickets,
    ]]
    proba = model.predict_proba(features)[0][1]
    return {"churn_probability": round(float(proba), 3)}
deployment.py
Key insight: Most ML roles in 2026 expect you to understand MLOps basics — inference, monitoring, and drift. A model in a notebook has zero business value until it's deployed and maintained.

SECTION 06Interview Q&A — how terms appear in interviews

Q1What's the difference between a parameter and a hyperparameter?

A parameter is a value the model learns during training (like weights or coefficients). A hyperparameter is a value you set before training (like learning rate, batch size, or tree depth). You tune hyperparameters; the model learns parameters.

Q2When would you prefer recall over precision?

Prefer recall when missing a positive case is worse than a false alarm. For example, cancer screening — you'd rather flag more people for further tests than miss a real case. Prefer precision when false positives are costly, like spam filters.

Q3What is overfitting and how do you fix it?

Overfitting means the model memorises training data and fails on new data — high training accuracy, lower test accuracy. Fix it with more data, simpler models, regularisation (L1/L2/dropout), early stopping, or cross-validation.

Q4What does MLOps mean in practice?

MLOps is the practice of deploying and maintaining ML models reliably. In practice it means versioning data and models, CI/CD pipelines for models, monitoring for drift and performance, automated retraining, and clear rollback procedures.

Q5What's the difference between data drift and model drift?

Data drift is when the input distribution changes (e.g., new customer demographics). Model drift (or concept drift) is when the relationship between inputs and outputs changes, so even the same inputs get different correct answers. Both degrade performance and usually require monitoring and retraining.

SECTION 07Test yourself — ML glossary quiz

Five questions. No sign-up.

0 / 5

Pick an answer to see why it is right or wrong.

SECTION 08Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between supervised and unsupervised learning?

Supervised learning trains on labelled data (input + correct answer) — like predicting house prices. Unsupervised learning finds patterns in unlabelled data — like clustering customers into segments. Both are core categories of ML.

What is overfitting in simple terms?

Overfitting means your model memorised the training data instead of learning general patterns. It performs great on training data but poorly on new data. It's like memorising exam answers without understanding the subject.

When should I use F1 score instead of accuracy?

Use F1 when classes are imbalanced and you care about both false positives and false negatives. Accuracy can be misleading when one class dominates — a model that always predicts the majority class can have high accuracy but useless real-world value.

What's the difference between a parameter and a hyperparameter?

Parameters are learned by the model during training (weights, coefficients). Hyperparameters are set by you before training (learning rate, batch size, number of layers). You tune hyperparameters; the model learns parameters.

What does MLOps stand for and why does it matter?

MLOps stands for Machine Learning Operations — the practices and tools for deploying and maintaining ML models reliably. It matters because most models fail in production without it: no monitoring, no retraining, no versioning. MLOps keeps models useful over time.

Classroom & online · Noida

Master ML fundamentals with real projects

Our Data Analytics Training Course covers ML fundamentals, sklearn, metrics, and MLOps basics — with real projects and interview prep.

₹15,500 · full programme ₹24,000
  • ML fundamentals & sklearn
  • Metrics, evaluation, and MLOps
  • Mock interviews
  • Weekday & weekend batches