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distribution family
violin
Box-plot with a density curve overlaid — shape of the distribution made visible.
The width at any point shows the density of observations. Often used in research papers where the shape of the distribution (multimodal, skewed) is itself the finding.
When to use
Comparing distributions where shape (modality, skew) matters.
When NOT to use
Audience is non-technical (use histogram or box-plot).
Rhetorical roles
- distribute
- compare
Variants & related
Required primitives
- has_axis_titles
Optional primitives
- has_legend
Common anti-patterns
- unfamiliar-encoding
Disambiguation rules
- Symmetrical density shapes flanking a central box.
- If only the density curves and no box, see ridgeline.