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Level of Significance

When observing a random process, there is always a certain probability that

the results are above some threshold. The probability of this threshold being
exceeded is called the level of significance α. Statisticians usually say
"statistically significant at the 5% level", which means that there is 5% chance
that the observed value occurs at random.(1) This term originates from the
theory of statistical tests, where the random process is the test statistic. If the
test statistic exceeds the limit zx (the critical threshold), the probability of
making a type I error is α.

The shaded area of the distribution density above specifies the probability that
the outcome z of an experiment exceeds the threshold value z x. Please note
that in some cases, the interesting question may implicitly refer to two
thresholds, as shown below:
In this case, the level of significance is the sum of the areas below -z x and
above +zx.

tistically significant at the 5% level", which means that there is 5% chance that

the observed value occurs at random.(1) This term originates from the theory
of statistical tests, where the random process is the test statistic. If the test
statistic exceeds the limit zx (the critical threshold), the probability of making
a type I error is α.

The shaded area of the distribution density above specifies the probability that
the outcome z of an experiment exceeds the threshold value z x. Please note
that in some cases, the interesting question may implicitly refer to two
thresholds, as shown below:
In this case, the level of significance is the sum of the areas below -z x and
above +zx.

(1)
In scientific publications you may find terms such as "highly significant", or "insignificant". These terms always

refer to the level of significance of a test. There's common concent about the wording:

α > 0.05 (> 5%) .... insignificant

α = 0.01 to 0.05 (1 to 5%) .... significant

α = 0.001 to 0.01 (0.1 to 1%) .... highly significant

α ≤ 0.001 (≤ 0.1%) .... conclusive (very highly significant)