correlation

American  

[kawr-uh-ley-shuhn, kor-] / ˌkɔr əˈleɪ ʃən, ˌkɒr- /

especially British, corelation

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.

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correlation British  

/ 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

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Pop Culture

—Pearson correlation coefficient: a value between -1 and +1 that represents the relationship between two variables.

Other Word Forms

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

Etymology

Origin of correlation

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

Explanation

Correlation is something that scientists are often trying to show––is there a correlation between smoking and poor health or between napping and productivity? How about daily flossing and good grades? Correlation derives from the Latin cor- 'together' and -relatio 'relation'––the word is all about things that go together. But beware: just because a study shows a correlation between two variables, it doesn't mean one necessarily causes the other. There is a significant correlation between going to high school and being a teenager, but that doesn't mean that going to high school causes you to be a teenager.

Example Sentences

But when the researchers took into account confounding factors such as a family history of neurodevelopmental disorders or mothers’ preexisting mental health conditions, the correlation disappeared.

From Los Angeles Times • May 27, 2026

"But the report did show a correlation between, the more time you spend on social media the greater loss of wellbeing."

From BBC • May 23, 2026

“You’re going to see that negative correlation when you need it most and there’s a steep economic decline,” Venter says.

From Barron's • May 21, 2026

Analysts at Goldman Sachs pointed out that the rolling three-month correlation between global stocks and the 10-year U.S.

From MarketWatch • May 20, 2026

There is a small negative correlation between death rates per thousand people in various regions of the country and divorce rates per thousand marriages in the same regions.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

Related Words

• interaction
• interrelationship
• parallel