a mutual or reciprocal relationship between two or more things the act or process of correlating or the state of being correlated the extent of correspondence between the ordering of two variables. Correlation is positive or direct when two variables move in the same direction and negative or inverse when they move in opposite directions
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
cor•re•la•tion /ˌkɔrəˈleɪʃən, ˌkɑr-/USA pronunciation
n.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025- relation of, or connection between, two or more things: [countable]a strong correlation between smoking and lung cancer.[uncountable]There is little correlation between cramming for the test and passing it.
cor•re•la•tion
(kôr′ə lā′shən, kor′-),USA pronunciation n.
cor′re•la′tion•al, adj.
- British Termsmutual relation of two or more things, parts, etc.
- British Termsthe act of correlating or state of being correlated.
- British Terms, Statistics[Statistics.]the degree to which two or more attributes or measurements on the same group of elements show a tendency to vary together.
- Physiologythe interdependence or reciprocal relations of organs or functions.
- Geologythe demonstrable equivalence, in age or lithology, of two or more stratigraphic units, as formations or members of such.
- Medieval Latin correlātiōn- (stem of correlātiō). See cor-, relation
- 1555–65
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