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CORRELATION
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A statistical relation between two or more variables such that systematic changes in the value of one variable are accompanied by systematic changes in the other
Synonyms:
correlation; correlational statistics
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("correlation" is a kind of...):
statistics (a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "correlation"):
curvilinear correlation; nonlinear correlation; skew correlation (any correlation in which the rates of change of the variables is not constant)
partial correlation (a correlation between two variables when the effects of one or more related variables are removed)
direct correlation; positive correlation (a correlation in which large values of one variable are associated with large values of the other and small with small; the correlation coefficient is between 0 and +1)
indirect correlation; negative correlation (a correlation in which large values of one variable are associated with small values of the other; the correlation coefficient is between 0 and -1)
spurious correlation (a correlation between two variables (e.g., between the number of electric motors in the home and grades at school) that does not result from any direct relation between them (buying electric motors will not raise grades) but from their relation to other variables)
Holonyms ("correlation" is a part of...):
correlational analysis (the use of statistical correlation to evaluate the strength of the relations between variables)
Derivation:
correlate (bring into a mutual, complementary, or reciprocal relation)
correlate (to bear a reciprocal or mutual relation)
correlational (relating to or employing correlation)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A statistic representing how closely two variables co-vary; it can vary from -1 (perfect negative correlation) through 0 (no correlation) to +1 (perfect positive correlation)
Example:
what is the correlation between those two variables?
Synonyms:
coefficient of correlation; correlation; correlation coefficient
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("correlation" is a kind of...):
parametric statistic (any statistic computed by procedures that assume the data were drawn from a particular distribution)
Domain category:
statistics (a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "correlation"):
Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient; product-moment correlation coefficient (the most commonly used method of computing a correlation coefficient between variables that are linearly related)
multiple correlation coefficient (an estimate of the combined influence of two or more variables on the observed (dependent) variable)
biserial correlation; biserial correlation coefficient (a correlation coefficient in which one variable is many-valued and the other is dichotomous)
chance-half correlation; split-half correlation (a correlation coefficient calculated between scores on two halves of a test; taken as an indication of the reliability of the test)
tetrachoric correlation; tetrachoric correlation coefficient (a correlation coefficient computed for two normally distributed variables that are both expressed as a dichotomy)
Derivation:
correlate (bring into a mutual, complementary, or reciprocal relation)
correlate (to bear a reciprocal or mutual relation)
correlational (relating to or employing correlation)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A reciprocal relation between two or more things
Synonyms:
correlation; correlativity
Classified under:
Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas
Hypernyms ("correlation" is a kind of...):
reciprocality; reciprocity (a relation of mutual dependence or action or influence)
Derivation:
correlate (bring into a mutual, complementary, or reciprocal relation)
correlate (to bear a reciprocal or mutual relation)
correlational (relating to or employing correlation)
Context examples:
The study itself outlines the tight correlation between the absence of white sharks and the presence of sevengills.
(Study indicates as great white shark disappears, living fossil moves in, Wikinews)
Nor was there any surprise in a correlation between amounts of salt and overall quantity of urine.
(Salty Diet Makes You Hungry, Not Thirsty, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
A correlation between obesity and genetics has been found to be modified by diet.
(International Research Team Finds Correlation Between Genetics and Obesity Is Modified by Diet, U.S. Department of Agriculture)
A measure of the correlation of two variables X and Y measured on the same object or organism, that is, a measure of the tendency of the variables to increase or decrease together.
(Pearson Correlation Coefficient, NCI Thesaurus)
"This may prove to be one of the factors that influences the amount and duration of a vaccine response, although right now we have only established a correlation, and not cause and effect."
(Gut Bacteria from Breastfeeding Linked to Improved Infant Response to Vaccines, U.S. Department of Agriculture)
However, the correlation of histological anaplasia with clinical outcome is inconsistent.
(Anaplastic Ganglioglioma, NCI Thesaurus/Adapted from WHO)
The parameters of the bivariate normal distribution include the mean and variance of each individual variable and the correlations between variables.
(Bivariate Normal Distribution, NCI Thesaurus)
The correlation coefficients between variable and factors.
(Component Load, NCI Thesaurus)
The calculated correlation function yields a diffusion coefficient, for a given temperature and viscosity, which can be used to calculate particle size.
(Photon Correlation Spectroscopy, NCI Thesaurus)
They found that there was no correlation between height and competition for food.
(Why life on Earth first got big, University of Cambridge)
