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Definition of "covariant" [co•va•ri•ant]

  • Physics Expressing, exhibiting, or relating to covariant theory. (adjective)
  • Statistics Varying with another variable quantity in a manner that leaves a specified relationship unchanged. (adjective)

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.

Use "covariant" in a sentence
  • "Over the previous year, he had been determined to find a gravitation theory that was generally covariant, that is, whose equations were unchanged by arbitrary transformation of the spacetime coordinates."
  • "The methods of the SimpleJDBCTemplate class take advantage of the new Java 1.5 features such as covariant return types."
  • "The covariant form of the metric tensor is expressed in terms of three parameters, m, e, and a by ds2 = ρ2dθ2 – 2a sin2θdrdφ + 2drdu + …"