variance

American  

[vair-ee-uhns] / ˈvɛər i əns /

noun

1. the state, quality, or fact of being variable, divergent, different, or anomalous.

2. an instance of varying; difference; discrepancy.

3. Also called mean square deviation.  Statistics. the square of the standard deviation.

4. Physics, Chemistry. the number of degrees of freedom of a system.

5. Law.

   1. a difference or discrepancy, as between two statements or documents in law that should agree.

   2. a departure from the cause of action originally stated in the complaint.

6. an official permit to do something normally forbidden by regulations, especially by building in a way or for a purpose normally forbidden by a zoning law or a building code.

7. a disagreement, dispute, or quarrel.

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idioms

1. at variance,

   1. (of things) in a state of difference or disagreement.

   2. (of persons) in a state of controversy or dissension.

      at variance with one's superiors.

variance British  

/ ˈvɛərɪəns /

noun

1. the act of varying or the quality, state, or degree of being divergent; discrepancy

2. an instance of diverging; dissension

   our variance on this matter should not affect our friendship

3. 1. (often foll by with) (of facts, etc) not in accord; conflicting

   2. (of persons) in a state of dissension

4. statistics a measure of dispersion obtained by taking the mean of the squared deviations of the observed values from their mean in a frequency distribution

5. a difference or discrepancy between two steps in a legal proceeding, esp between a statement in a pleading and the evidence given to support it

6. (in the US and Canada) a licence or authority issued by the board of variance to contravene the usual rule, esp to build contrary to the provision of a zoning code

7. chem the number of degrees of freedom of a system, used in the phase rule

8. accounting the difference between actual and standard costs of production

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Other Word Forms

• nonvariance noun
• self-variance noun

Etymology

Origin of variance

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Latin variantia, from vari(āre) “to vary” ( vary ) + -antia -ance

Example Sentences

Performance and reliability: Distributed GPU networks face inherent challenges with performance variance, latency and quality control.

From MarketWatch

The picture of Russia emerging triumphant and legitimized from such a deal is, ahem, at variance with reality.

From The Wall Street Journal

The result is wider variance—more high performers who use AI well, offset by more students who let it replace real understanding.

From The Wall Street Journal

Sometimes, what might stand out is a song that sounds almost too perfect, lacking minor flaws and variances.

From BBC

It allows clubs to invest ahead of revenue and variance or sporting underperformance.

From BBC

Related Words

• deviation
• difference of opinion
• discrepancy
• divergence
• fluctuation