| / English Dictionary |
VARIANCE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An activity that varies from a norm or standard
Example:
any variation in his routine was immediately reported
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("variance" is a kind of...):
activity (any specific behavior)
Derivation:
variant (differing from a norm or standard)
vary (be at variance with; be out of line with)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An official dispensation to act contrary to a rule or regulation (typically a building regulation)
Example:
a zoning variance
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("variance" is a kind of...):
dispensation (an exemption from some rule or obligation)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The quality of being subject to variation
Synonyms:
variability; variableness; variance
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("variance" is a kind of...):
changeability; changeableness (the quality of being changeable; having a marked tendency to change)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "variance"):
variedness (characterized by variation)
variegation (variability in coloration)
personal equation (variability attributable to individual differences)
Derivation:
variable (marked by diversity or difference)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions
Example:
a growing divergence of opinion
Synonyms:
disagreement; discrepancy; divergence; variance
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("variance" is a kind of...):
difference (the quality of being unlike or dissimilar)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "variance"):
allowance; leeway; margin; tolerance (a permissible difference; allowing some freedom to move within limits)
Sense 5
Meaning:
The second moment around the mean; the expected value of the square of the deviations of a random variable from its mean value
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("variance" is a kind of...):
moment (the n-th moment of a distribution is the expected value of the n-th power of the deviations from a fixed value)
Domain category:
statistics (a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "variance"):
standard deviation (the square root of the variance)
covariance ((statistics) the mean value of the product of the deviations of two variates from their respective means)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Discord that splits a group
Synonyms:
division; variance
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("variance" is a kind of...):
discord; dissension (disagreement among those expected to cooperate)
Sense 7
Meaning:
An event that departs from expectations
Synonyms:
discrepancy; variance; variant
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("variance" is a kind of...):
departure; deviation; difference; divergence (a variation that deviates from the standard or norm)
Context examples:
Any variance from the expected 1:1 ratio for the expression of the two inherited parental alleles for the same gene.
(Allelic Imbalance, NCI Thesaurus)
The parameters of the bivariate normal distribution include the mean and variance of each individual variable and the correlations between variables.
(Bivariate Normal Distribution, NCI Thesaurus)
Looking at maize, the phenomenon caused 38 per cent of production variance in northeast Brazil, 20 per cent in southwest Mexico and 15 per cent in West Africa.
(El Niño linked to widespread crop failures, SciDev.Net)
The merry lilt with which he had invested the jingle was at variance with the dejection that came into his face as he finished.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
The parameters of the multivariate normal distribution include the mean and variance of each individual variable and the correlations between variables.
(Multivariate Normal Distribution, NCI Thesaurus)
Thank you:—whether people, who are like each other in their moral constitution, are in greater danger than people not so circumstanced, supposing any serious cause of variance to arise between them, of being divided angrily and deeply?
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Alliance by blood, or marriage, is a frequent cause of war between princes; and the nearer the kindred is, the greater their disposition to quarrel; poor nations are hungry, and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I was interested as to which quatrain he would like best, and was not surprised when he hit upon the one born of an instant’s irritability, and quite at variance with the Persian’s complacent philosophy and genial code of life:
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The disagreement subsisting between yourself and my late honoured father always gave me much uneasiness, and since I have had the misfortune to lose him, I have frequently wished to heal the breach; but for some time I was kept back by my own doubts, fearing lest it might seem disrespectful to his memory for me to be on good terms with anyone with whom it had always pleased him to be at variance.—'There, Mrs. Bennet.'—My mind, however, is now made up on the subject, for having received ordination at Easter, I have been so fortunate as to be distinguished by the patronage of the Right Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, widow of Sir Lewis de Bourgh, whose bounty and beneficence has preferred me to the valuable rectory of this parish, where it shall be my earnest endeavour to demean myself with grateful respect towards her ladyship, and be ever ready to perform those rites and ceremonies which are instituted by the Church of England. As a clergyman, moreover, I feel it my duty to promote and establish the blessing of peace in all families within the reach of my influence; and on these grounds I flatter myself that my present overtures are highly commendable, and that the circumstance of my being next in the entail of Longbourn estate will be kindly overlooked on your side, and not lead you to reject the offered olive-branch. I cannot be otherwise than concerned at being the means of injuring your amiable daughters, and beg leave to apologise for it, as well as to assure you of my readiness to make them every possible amends—but of this hereafter. If you should have no objection to receive me into your house, I propose myself the satisfaction of waiting on you and your family, Monday, November 18th, by four o'clock, and shall probably trespass on your hospitality till the Saturday se'ennight following, which I can do without any inconvenience, as Lady Catherine is far from objecting to my occasional absence on a Sunday, provided that some other clergyman is engaged to do the duty of the day.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
You have introduced a topic on which our natures are at variance—a topic we should never discuss: the very name of love is an apple of discord between us.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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