Variances

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Differences that exist among various instances or samples in terms of their characteristics or outcomes
2. The degree of disagreement or divergence noted in related items or observations over time
3. The amounts by which items or data differ from one another in characteristics or results

Etymology: Before it described the spread of measurements, this word meant quarrelling. It comes from the Latin "variare," to change or make diverse, which in turn comes from "varius," meaning varied or many-coloured. Through Old French it reached English with the sense of a dispute or a clash between two parties, a gap between what was claimed and what was true. The statistician Ronald Fisher gave the term its mathematical meaning, using it as a measure of how far values scatter around their average. The square root of that measure is the standard deviation, the better-known companion, but the older word is what carried the idea of divergence into statistics.

Synonyms: differences, discrepancies, divergences, inconsistencies, distinctions

Antonyms: similarities, uniformities, consistencies, equivalences, congruities