Correlation

How to spell correlation

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce correlation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does correlation mean?

1. nounA mutual relationship or connection between two or more things, especially one in which they tend to vary together.

Correlation in a sentence

• The report found a strong correlation between sleep and productivity.

• Researchers warned that correlation does not prove that one factor causes the other.

Where does correlation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from Latin and was assembled from the prefix cor-, a form of com- meaning 'together', joined to relatio, meaning 'a bringing back' or 'a relating', which itself derives from the verb referre, 'to carry back'. The idea behind the parts is of two things 'carried back together', that is, brought into a mutual relationship. The term entered English in the seventeenth century, largely through scholarly and scientific Latin, to describe a reciprocal connection in which one thing varies alongside another. It became a precise statistical term in the late nineteenth century when Francis Galton and Karl Pearson developed ways to measure how strongly two variables move together. The spelling trap lives in that opening: the doubled 'r' of cor- followed by the single 'r' of relation, so writers must remember it is correlation, not corelation.

How the word is built

• cor- (together, variant of com-)
• relation (a connection or relating)