asymmetric distribution

An asymmetric distribution is a probability distrubution that is asymmetric about its median. For example, waiting times in many contexts are often highly asymmetric, not least because there cannot be negative waiting times, but also because there may also be occasional very long waiting times. Asymmetric distributions are often heavily skewed, as in the example of waiting times, with a long tail on one side, but may also simply be different shapes.