A causal, complementary, parallel, or reciprocal relationship, especially a structural, functional, or qualitative correspondence between two comparable entities: a correlation between drug abuse and crime.
Statistics The simultaneous change in value of two numerically valued random variables: the positive correlation between cigarette smoking and the incidence of lung cancer; the negative correlation between age and normal vision.
An act of correlating or the condition of being correlated.
[Medieval Latin correlātiō, correlātiōn- : Latin com-, com- + Latin relātiō, relation, report (from relātus, past participle of referre, to carry back; see relate).]
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); "what is the correlation between those two variables?" [syn: correlation coefficient]
3.
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
Cor`re*la"tion\ (-l?"sh?n), n. [LL. correlatio; L. cor- + relatio: cf. F. corr['e]lation. Cf. Correlation.] Reciprocal relation; corresponding similarity or parallelism of relation or law; capacity of being converted into, or of giving place to, one another, under certain conditions; as, the correlation of forces, or of zymotic diseases. Correlation of energy, the relation to one another of different forms of energy; -- usually having some reference to the principle of conservation of energy. See Conservation of energy, under Conservation. Correlation of forces, the relation between the forces which matter, endowed with various forms of energy, may exert.