correlation

American  

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

especially British, corelation

noun

• correlations
  plural

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

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• correlations
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of correlation

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

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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

See Examples For:

correlation correlations

"This longitudinal correlation suggests that Alzheimer's disease pathology is associated with a disruption of this main sleep feature," Sharon said.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026

McDonagh gets a kick out of making us enjoy palling around with sinners as they chitchat about the correlation between democracies and good cheese.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

A hawkish Fed will be a headwind, and “the recent positive correlation between equities and gold suggests that gold prices will fall if, as we expect, the AI equity boom turns to bust.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026

“Since the early summer, we have viewed this area as a critical threshold for the market, below which we think selling pressure, volatility and correlation can dramatically increase,” wrote Jason Hunter, technical strategist at J.P.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026

Let’s start with the positive correlation: books in the home equal higher test scores.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt

What stands out is that implied correlations have been suppressed since January 2023, around the same time SPY began to outperform RSP.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 18, 2026

Rising implied correlations have also usually been a bearish feature, coming as the S&P 500 moves lower.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 18, 2026

That allowed the team to determine whether the two Z bosons displayed the correlations expected from quantum entanglement.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

It allows particles or systems to share correlations that cannot be explained by classical physics.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026

So if you just look at raw correlations between police and crime, you will find that when there are more police, there tends to be more crime.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt

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Related Words

• interaction
• interrelationship
• parallel

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