Variance

How to spell variance

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce variance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does variance mean?

1. nounA difference or discrepancy between two things that are expected to match.
2. nounA statistical measure of how far a set of values spreads out from their mean.
3. nounOfficial permission to depart from a zoning rule or planning regulation.

Variance in a sentence

• The auditor flagged a small variance between the invoice and the receipt.

• The analyst calculated the variance to gauge how scattered the test scores were.

• The homeowner applied for a variance to build closer to the property line.

• There was a noticeable variance in quality across the two production batches.

• A low variance means the readings cluster tightly around the average.

• The council granted a variance allowing the shop to stay open later than usual.

Where does variance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb variare, meaning 'to change' or 'to make different', which was itself built on the adjective varius, meaning 'diverse', 'mottled', or 'spotted'. From variare came the Latin noun variantia, describing the condition of differing or fluctuating. English took the word in through Old French during the late 1300s, where it carried the general sense of a difference or discrepancy between things. Over the centuries it gathered specialised meanings: lawyers and planners use it for an official permission to depart from a rule, while statisticians adopted it in the early twentieth century as a precise measure of how widely values spread around their average. The same varius root sits inside everyday relatives like 'various', 'variety', and 'variation', and remembering that family helps fix the single medial 'i' and the '-ance' ending in place.

How the word is built

• vari- (from Latin variare: to change, to vary)
• -ance (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or quality)