Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state or quality of being variant or variable; variation.
  • noun Difference or inconsistency.
  • noun The state or fact of being in disagreement or in conflict.
  • noun A discrepancy between two statements or documents, especially between the charge in a criminal indictment and the evidence presented.
  • noun An exception to the application of a usual rule, granted by an authority on the basis of hardship or practicality.
  • noun Statistics The square of the standard deviation.
  • noun Chemistry The number of thermodynamic variables, such as temperature and pressure, required to specify a state of equilibrium of a system, given by the phase rule; the degrees of freedom of a system.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In physical chemistry, that property of a chemical system which is expressed by the equation V = c + 2 — φ, where V is the variance, c the number of independent components, and φ the number of phases in which the system may exist. Systems are said to be invariant, univariant, bivariant, multivariant, etc., according to the value of V.
  • noun The state of being or the act of becoming variant; alteration; variation; change; difference.
  • noun In law, a discrepancy: Between pleadings and proof, as where a complaint mentions a wrong date, or the facts prove to be different from what was alleged.
  • noun Between the form of the writ or process by which the action was commenced and the form of the declaration or complaint.
  • noun Difference that produces disagreement or controversy; dispute; dissension; discord.
  • noun Variableness; inconstancy.
  • noun In a state of controversy or dissension; in a state of opposition or enmity.
  • noun Synonyms and Disagreement, etc. See difference.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being variant; change of condition; variation.
  • noun Difference that produces dispute or controversy; disagreement; dissension; discord; dispute; quarrel.
  • noun (Law) A disagreement or difference between two parts of the same legal proceeding, which, to be effectual, ought to agree, -- as between the writ and the declaration, or between the allegation and the proof.
  • noun (Statistics) The expected value of the square of the deviation from the mean of a randomly distributed variable; the second moment about the mean. This is also the square of the standard deviation.
  • noun in disagreement; in a state of dissension or controversy; at enmity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of varying or the state of being variable
  • noun A difference between what is expected and what happens
  • noun The state of differing or being in conflict
  • noun A discrepancy, especially between two legal documents
  • noun statistics The second central moment in probability
  • noun computing, programming covariance and contravariance generally

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun discord that splits a group
  • noun the second moment around the mean; the expected value of the square of the deviations of a random variable from its mean value
  • noun an official dispensation to act contrary to a rule or regulation (typically a building regulation)
  • noun the quality of being subject to variation
  • noun a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions
  • noun an event that departs from expectations
  • noun an activity that varies from a norm or standard

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French variance.

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Examples

  • Perhaps the matter in variance is a secret, not fit to be divulged to any, much less to be brought upon the stage before the country; and therefore end it privately, that it may not be discovered.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721

  • Looking at the bottom graph, it appears the variance is a bit less than 5%.

    Matthew Yglesias » Elections Getting Duller 2009

  • Another factor could be the difference in variance in talents within the genders.

    All else being equal. 2009

  • The Planning Board can not do that, any variance from the rules would have to come through the ZBA, but would probably be hard to get.

    Robert E wyman 2010

  • The King County Health Department recently notified restaurants that the sous vide process — cooking vacuum-sealed food in water baths at low, precisely-controlled temperatures — requires a variance from the health department, as well as an approvedHazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan, a detailed food safety plan more commonly seen in large-scale or industrial operations.

    Sous Vide? So illegal 2009

  • Everywhere homosexuality and gender variance is being discriminated against; in more that 80 countries in the world, same sex relationships are criminalised and in 7 of them, death penalty can be enforced.

    May 17 – International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia 2009

  • The hypothesis would assert that substantial local variance is deliberate.

    Wolfram Blog : Flag Analysis with Mathematica 2009

  • The King County Health Department recently notified restaurants that the sous vide process — cooking vacuum-sealed food in water baths at low, precisely-controlled temperatures — requires a variance from the health department, as well as an approvedHazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan, a detailed food safety plan more commonly seen in large-scale or industrial operations.

    Sous Vide? So illegal 2009

  • If an exception or variance is needed, then the rules need changing.

    Trust me (Jack Bog's Blog) 2009

  • And you don't have to assume any large difference in variance between the male and female population's abilities.

    Gender Differences, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • The reason is what statisticians call ‘variance’, which measures the degree to which the possible outcomes of a given event are dispersed around the expected outcome.

    Paul Myerscough · Diary: Confessions of a Poker Player · LRB 29 January 2009 Paul Myerscough 2019

Comments

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  • "Well said, then this is thy trial: Instead of carrying

    the King's letters to my father, carry thou these letters to my

    sister, which contain matter quite contrary to the other:

    there shall she be given to understand, that my father hath

    detracted her, given out slanderous speeches against her; and

    that he hath most intolerably abused me, set my Lord and

    me at variance, and made mutinies amongst the commons."

    - anon., 'King Leir'.

    October 25, 2008