What term describes the overall shape of the spread of a set of values?

The term that describes the overall shape of the spread of a set of values is known as the probability distribution. Probability distributions provide a comprehensive view of how data values are distributed across various potential outcomes. This distribution outlines the likelihood of each value occurring within the dataset, illustrating patterns such as normal distribution, skewness, and kurtosis.

Understanding probability distributions is essential in statistics and data analysis, as they help analysts make predictions and infer properties about populations based on sample data. It encapsulates not just the values but also the frequency and likelihood of those values appearing.

In contrast, the other terms do not fully capture the concept of the distribution's shape. The value range simply refers to the difference between the maximum and minimum values in a dataset. Data clusters indicate groups of data points that are close to each other but do not describe the overall shape. Outcome variability concerns the extent of variation within the results but does not pertain explicitly to the shape of the spread across values. Thus, probability distribution is the most appropriate term for describing the shape of the spread of a set of values.