Definition of "variance" []

• The act of varying. (noun)
• The state or quality of being variant or variable; a variation. (noun)
• A difference between what is expected and what actually occurs. (noun)
• The state or fact of differing or of being in conflict. See Synonyms at discord. (noun)
• Law A discrepancy between two statements or documents in a proceeding. (noun)
• The act of varying or the quality, state, or degree of being divergent; discrepancy (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• An instance of diverging; dissension (noun)
• A measure of dispersion obtained by taking the mean of the squared deviations of the observed values from their mean in a frequency distribution (noun)
• A difference or discrepancy between two steps in a legal proceeding, esp between a statement in a pleading and the evidence given to support it (noun)
• (in the US and Canada) a licence or authority issued by the board of variance to contravene the usual rule, esp to build contrary to the provision of a zoning code (noun)
• The number of degrees of freedom of a system, used in the phase rule (noun)
• The difference between actual and standard costs of production (noun)

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• "Perhaps the matter in variance is a secret, not fit to be divulged to any, much less to be brought upon the stage before the country; and therefore end it privately, that it may not be discovered."
• "Looking at the bottom graph, it appears the variance is a bit less than 5%."
• "If an exception or variance is needed, then the rules need changing."