the pattern of values obtained when estimating the probability of occurrence of two or more random variables. For example, the probability values for drawing a heart and a jack in a deck of cards would form the following joint distribution: (13/52) × (48/52) to obtain a heart but not a jack; (39/52) × (48/52) to obtain a nonheart and a nonjack; (39/52) × (4/52) to obtain a nonheart and a jack; and (13/52) × (4/52) to obtain a heart that is also a jack. A joint distribution for two variables is referred to more specifically as a bivariate distribution, whereas a joint distribution for more than two variables is called a multivariate distribution.