noun / adjective · academic

variable

UK/ˈveəriəb(ə)l/US/ˈveriəbəl/VA·ri·a·ble

Band 7+task1task2

(n) something that can change or be changed; (adj) likely to change or to be different

Examples

Age is a variable that the study controlled for.

Weather in this region is highly variable.

We measured how each variable affected the outcome.

Band 8 sentence

When designing the experiment, we controlled as many variables as possible to isolate the effect of the intervention.

Collocations

  • dependent variable
  • highly variable

Word family

variability nounvary verb

Common mistakes

variables isvariables are

a variable datavariable data / a variable

Say it for a higher band

5change6fluctuating7+variable

Synonyms

changeable

Easily confused

variation

There was considerable variation in test scores between classes.

Related words

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In Sublist 5

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