Given a de novo assembly, we often measure the “average” contig length by N50. N50 is neither the real average nor median. It is the length of the contig such that this and longer contigs cover at least 50% of the assembly. A longer N50 indicates better contiguity. We can similarly define Nx such that contigs no shorter than Nx covers x% of the assembly. The Nx curve plots Nx as a function of x, where x is ranged from 0 to 100.
