VARIABLE QUANTITY

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Meaning:

A quantity that can assume any of a set of values

Synonyms:

variable; variable quantity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("variable quantity" is a kind of...):

quantity (the concept that something has a magnitude and can be represented in mathematical expressions by a constant or a variable)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "variable quantity"):

argument (a variable in a logical or mathematical expression whose value determines the dependent variable; if f(x)=y, x is the independent variable)

experimental variable; independent variable ((statistics) a variable whose values are independent of changes in the values of other variables)

correlate; correlative (either of two or more related or complementary variables)

degree of freedom ((statistics) an unrestricted variable in a frequency distribution)

dependent variable ((statistics) a variable in a logical or mathematical expression whose value depends on the independent variable)

predictor variable (a variable that can be used to predict the value of another variable (as in statistical regression))

infinitesimal ((mathematics) a variable that has zero as its limit)

scalar (a variable quantity that cannot be resolved into components)

tensor (a generalization of the concept of a vector)

vector (a variable quantity that can be resolved into components)