noun / adjective · academic
variable
UK/ˈveəriəbl/US/ˈveriəbl/VAR·i·a·ble
Band 7+task1task2speaking
something that can change or vary; a factor that is not consistent across situations or over time
Examples
“Temperature is an important variable in the experiment.”
“The results depend on several socio‑economic variables.”
“Income levels are highly variable across regions.”
Band 8 sentence
“When modelling economic growth, researchers must control for multiple variables to avoid biased estimates.”
Collocations
- dependent variable
- independent variable
- highly variable
Word family
variable noun / adjvariability nounvary verb
Common mistakes
a heavy variable→a highly variable / a major variable
variables are depend on→variables depend on
Say it for a higher band
5change→6factor→7+variable
Synonyms
factor
element
Easily confused
variation
“There was considerable variation in exam scores between schools.”
Related words
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In Sublist 3
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