correlation

especially British, co·re·la·tion

[kawr-uh-ley-shuhn, kor-]

noun

1. mutual relation of two or more things, parts, etc..

   Studies find a positive correlation between severity of illness and nutritional status of the patients.

   Synonyms: interconnection, interrelationship, interdependence, equivalence, parallelism, correspondence, similarity

2. the act of correlating or state of being correlated.

3. Statistics.,  the degree to which two or more attributes or measurements on the same group of elements show a tendency to vary together.

4. Physiology.,  the interdependence or reciprocal relations of organs or functions.

5. Geology.,  the demonstrable equivalence, in age or lithology, of two or more stratigraphic units, as formations or members of such.

correlation

/ ˌkɒrɪˈleɪʃən /

noun

1. a mutual or reciprocal relationship between two or more things

2. the act or process of correlating or the state of being correlated

3. statistics the extent of correspondence between the ordering of two variables. Correlation is positive or direct when two variables move in the same direction and negative or inverse when they move in opposite directions

Other Word Forms

• correlational adjective
• intercorrelation noun
• miscorrelation noun
• noncorrelation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of correlation¹

First recorded in 1555–65; from Medieval Latin: correlātiōn- (stem of correlātiō ); cor-, relation

Word History and Origins

Origin of correlation¹

C16: from Medieval Latin correlātiō, from com- together + relātiō, _relation

Example Sentences

In other words, correlation is not the same as causation.

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But the good news for stocks is that “historically, profit margins have shown a strong positive correlation with fiscal deficits, with a roughly one-year lead — higher deficits tend to precede higher margins,” they say.

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Lately, though, the conventional wisdom has been challenged, and for good reason: Independent, peer-reviewed research has found no correlation—let alone causation—between diversity and performance.

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But it still appears to have lost its correlation with other risk assets.

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But the data confirm the correlation, as the chart below shows.

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Related Words

• interaction 
• interrelationship www.thesaurus.com
• parallel