1. in statistics, the standard normal variate that standardizes a normal distribution by converting an x-scale to a zscale.

2. score produced by Altman's bankruptcy prediction model, which is as follows:

Z = 1.2 * X1 + 1.4  * X2 + 3.3 * X3 + 0.6 * X 4 + 0.999 * X 5
where X1 = working capital/total assets (%), X2 = retained earnings/total assets (%), X3 = earnings before interest and taxes/total assets (%), X4 = market value of equity/book value of debt (%), and X5 = sales/total assets (number of times). The Z score is known to be about 90% accurate in forecasting business failure one year in the future and about 80% accurate in forecasting it two years in the future.