variance

The state or quality of being variant or variable; variation.

Difference or inconsistency.

The state or fact of being in disagreement or in conflict.

A discrepancy between two statements or documents, especially between the charge in a criminal indictment and the evidence presented.

An exception to the application of a usual rule, granted by an authority on the basis of hardship or practicality.

The square of the standard deviation.

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; the degrees of freedom of a system.

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.