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 ); cor-, relation

Example Sentences

One way around this is to invest in ETFs that include stocks of gold-mining companies, which tend to have a strong correlation with spot gold prices.

From Barron's

“Amid ongoing disinflation, the negative correlation between equities and bonds has returned, restoring Treasurys as a portfolio diversification and protection tool,” they say.

From The Wall Street Journal

Studies have shown a correlation between heavy digital dependence and mental health challenges including depression, anxiety and stress.

From Los Angeles Times

Researchers could analyze that data, seeking correlations between diet and the sensor’s main metric: the total volume of gas passed in a day.

From The Wall Street Journal

The energy sector’s monthly returns had only a 74% correlation with the rest of the market, meaning that sometimes it zigged when everything else was zagging — an extraordinarily useful attribute in the real world.

From MarketWatch

Related Words

• interaction
• interrelationship
• parallel