variance

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of varying.
2. n. The state or quality of being variant or variable; a variation.
3. n. A difference between what is expected and what actually occurs.
4. n. The state or fact of differing or of being in conflict. See Synonyms at discord.
5. n. Law A discrepancy between two statements or documents in a proceeding.
6. n. Law License to engage in an act contrary to a usual rule: a zoning variance.
7. n. Statistics The square of the standard deviation.
8. n. Chemistry The number of thermodynamic variables, such as temperature and pressure, required to specify a state of equilibrium of a system, given by the phase rule.
9. idiom. at variance In a state of discrepancy; differing: The facts are at variance with your story.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In physical chemistry, that property of a chemical system which is expressed by the equation V = c + 2 — φ, where V is the variance, c the number of independent components, and φ the number of phases in which the system may exist. Systems are said to be invariant, univariant, bivariant, multivariant, etc., according to the value of V.
2. n. The state of being or the act of becoming variant; alteration; variation; change; difference.
3. n. In law, a discrepancy: Between pleadings and proof, as where a complaint mentions a wrong date, or the facts prove to be different from what was alleged.
4. n. Between the form of writ or process by which the action was commenced and the form of declaration or complaint. Formerly, when variances were deemed more important than now, variance was often defined as a fatal discrepancy or disagreement, etc.; but in civil cases such variances between pleading and proof as do not actually mislead the adverse party are now disregarded as immaterial, and many others are amendable. Under what is known in the United States as the Code Practice, vari ance is used to designate a discrepancy in some particulars only, and is amendable if it has not misled, while a failure of proof as to the entire scope and meaning of an allegation is not regarded as a mere variance, but fatal.
5. n. Difference that produces disagreement or controversy; dispute; dissension; discord.
6. n. Variableness; inconstancy.
7. n. In a state of controversy or dissension; in a state of opposition or enmity.
8. n. Synonyms and Disagreement, etc. See difference.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of varying or the state of being variable
2. n. A difference between what is expected and what happens
3. n. The state of differing or being in conflict
4. n. A discrepancy, especially between two legal documents
5. n. statistics The second central moment in probability
6. n. computing, programming covariance and contravariance generally

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The quality or state of being variant; change of condition; variation.
2. n. Difference that produces dispute or controversy; disagreement; dissension; discord; dispute; quarrel.
3. n. (Law) A disagreement or difference between two parts of the same legal proceeding, which, to be effectual, ought to agree, -- as between the writ and the declaration, or between the allegation and the proof.
4. n. (Statistics) The expected value of the square of the deviation from the mean of a randomly distributed variable; the second moment about the mean. This is also the square of the standard deviation.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. discord that splits a group
2. n. the second moment around the mean; the expected value of the square of the deviations of a random variable from its mean value
3. n. an official dispensation to act contrary to a rule or regulation (typically a building regulation)
4. n. the quality of being subject to variation
5. n. a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions
6. n. an event that departs from expectations
7. n. an activity that varies from a norm or standard