variation

[vair-ee-ey-shuhn]

noun

1. the act, process, or accident of varying in condition, character, or degree.

   Prices are subject to variation.

   Synonyms: difference, divergence, deviation, modification, alteration, mutation

2. an instance of this.

   There is a variation in the quality of fabrics in this shipment.

3. amount, rate, extent, or degree of change.

   a temperature variation of 40° in a particular climate.

4. a different form of something; variant.

5. Music.

   1. the transformation of a melody or theme with changes or elaborations in harmony, rhythm, and melody.

   2. a varied vary form of a melody or theme, especially one of a series of such forms developing the capacities of the subject.

6. Ballet.,  a solo dance, especially one forming a section of a pas de deux.

7. Astronomy.,  any deviation from the mean orbit of a heavenly body, especially of a planetary or satellite orbit.

8. Also called magnetic declination,. Also called magnetic variation. Navigation.,  the angle between the geographic and the magnetic meridian at a given point, expressed in plus degrees east or minus degrees west of true north.

9. Biology.,  a difference or deviation in structure or character from others of the same species or group.

variation

/ ˌvɛərɪˈeɪʃən /

noun

1. the act, process, condition, or result of changing or varying; diversity

2. an instance of varying or the amount, rate, or degree of such change

3. something that differs from a standard or convention

4. music

   1. a repetition of a musical theme in which the rhythm, harmony, or melody is altered or embellished

   2. ( as modifier )

      variation form

5. biology

   1. a marked deviation from the typical form or function

   2. a characteristic or an organism showing this deviation

6. astronomy any change in or deviation from the mean motion or orbit of a planet, satellite, etc, esp a perturbation of the moon

7. another word for magnetic declination

8. ballet a solo dance

9. linguistics any form of morphophonemic change, such as one involved in inflection, conjugation, or vowel mutation

Other Word Forms

• variationally adverb
• variational adjective
• variative adjective
• variatively adverb
• intervariation noun
• nonvariation noun
• overvariation noun
• prevariation noun
• self-variation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of variation¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; from Latin variātiōn-, stem of variātiō; equivalent to variate + -ion; replacing Middle English variacioun, from Anglo-French, from Latin, as above

Example Sentences

In the end, Rountree wrote a short series on variations on two themes he extracted from the sketches that serve as an epilogue to the “MASS” suite.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Because of changes in vertical wind shear -- the variation in wind speed and direction high in the atmosphere -- La Nina tends to bring more hurricanes in the Atlantic basin and fewer in the Pacific.

Read more on Barron's

F&F’s tender, pillowy pies come in variations like hot sausage and brown-butter sage, and a clam pizza with fresh lemon and red chile flakes.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“Even as demolitions and smaller, differentiated types of replacements and variations have thinned the ranks of the projects, there remain 886,000 public housing ‘units’ that are home to 1.6 million Americans,” he writes.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But it found that there were big variations in how much pupils used it.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• abnormality 
• alteration 
• change 
• deviation 
• discrepancy 
• disparity 
• divergence 
• diversity 
• fluctuation 
• innovation 
• modification 
• mutation 
• shift 
• variety