noun · academic
variance
UK/ˈvɛərɪəns/US/ˈvɛriəns/VAR·iance
the amount by which things differ from each other or the average; in statistics, a measure of spread of values
Examples
“The variance in students' test scores was surprisingly low this year.”
“There is some variance between the two surveys' results.”
“Statisticians calculate variance to understand how spread out data are.”
Band 8 sentence
“Researchers reported a small variance across trial groups, suggesting the treatment had consistent effects.”
Collocations
- variance in
- statistical variance
- large variance
Word family
Common mistakes
difference→variance
a big variances→a big variance / large variance
Say it for a higher band
5change→6variation→7+variance
Synonyms
variation
Easily confused
variation
“There is considerable variation in how people respond to the same training.”
Related words
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In -ance / -ence
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