Key Difference: Accuracy is the degree of closeness of a measurement of a quantity to a “true” value, while precision is the number of times a measurement is close to a central value.

Accuracy and precision are most commonly used in fields such as science, engineering, industry and statistics. Accuracy and precision are synonymous; however they are very different from each other. Accuracy is the degree of closeness of a measurement of a quantity to a “true” value. Precision is the number of times a measurement is close to a central value.

Accuracy is the amount of times a person is close to the ‘actual’ or ‘true’ value, while precision is the amount of times a person comes up with results similar to a value, which may or may not be precise. A measurement can be accurate, precise, both or neither. However, if a value is precise does not necessarily mean that the value is accurate, however if a person keeps coming up with accurate results each time, it means the results are accurate and precise.