Is metrics a synonym of scores?

Question

I would like to know if I can use score and metric interchangeably. I'm a software engineer, and I'm creating a product that will store conversion metrics (the level of conversion of a site's visitor), and read scores (word count, adverb percentage, sentiment of the text). Therefore, my product database has a conversion_metrics and a read_scores table. I would like to know if I can use conversion_scores or read_metrics. I unconscious named them, without much thinking, and now I got me thinking about it.

Anton · Answer

This is an engaging question that would have been better had you shown us some evidence of your own research. I answer it because there is an understandable confusion between the two words, both of which seem to relate to quantitative description.

Metric = a system for measuring something
Cambridge

Score = the number of points, goals, etc. achieved in a game or competition
Cambridge

Score has wider application in the counting of things such as in your survey, which is neither game nor competition.
The metric of your system is thus a wider term than a mere score. It may include a score, or statistics relating to the system such as average score, standard deviation of scores, maximum scores, minimum scores. The metrics of the system may also include other measures of the system such as proportions of nouns, adverbs, adjectives etc.
From this viewpoint, the words are not synonymous, score being a simple count, whereas the components of a metric may be defined in many ways.

Is metrics a synonym of scores?

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