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Variation   /vˌɛriˈeɪʃən/   Listen
noun
Variation  n.  
1.
The act of varying; a partial change in the form, position, state, or qualities of a thing; modification; alteration; mutation; diversity; deviation; as, a variation of color in different lights; a variation in size; variation of language. "The essences of things are conceived not capable of any such variation."
2.
Extent to which a thing varies; amount of departure from a position or state; amount or rate of change.
3.
(Gram.) Change of termination of words, as in declension, conjugation, derivation, etc.
4.
(Mus.) Repetition of a theme or melody with fanciful embellishments or modifications, in time, tune, or harmony, or sometimes change of key; the presentation of a musical thought in new and varied aspects, yet so that the essential features of the original shall still preserve their identity.
5.
(Alg.) One of the different arrangements which can be made of any number of quantities taking a certain number of them together.
Annual variation (Astron.), the yearly change in the right ascension or declination of a star, produced by the combined effects of the precession of the equinoxes and the proper motion of the star.
Calculus of variations. See under Calculus.
Variation compass. See under Compass.
Variation of the moon (Astron.), an inequality of the moon's motion, depending on the angular distance of the moon from the sun. It is greater at the octants, and zero at the quadratures.
Variation of the needle (Geog. & Naut.), the angle included between the true and magnetic meridians of a place; the deviation of the direction of a magnetic needle from the true north and south line; called also declination of the needle.
Synonyms: Change; vicissitude; variety; deviation.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Variation" Quotes from Famous Books



... Christ! Perhaps he saw that he could have a great apparent success by the use of worldly means. He could bring the Jew and the Gentile to acknowledge and receive his truth. Some slight concession to worldly wisdom, some little compromise with existing errors, some hardly perceptible variation from perfect truthfulness, and lo! the kingdom of God would come in that very hour, instead of lingering through long centuries. What evils might not be spared to the race, what woes to the world, if the divine gospel of love to God and man were inaugurated by Christ himself! This, perhaps, was ...
— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke

... offended God. Men, silly enough to accept a system of morals from guides thus hollow in reasoning, and thus discordant in opinion, must necessarily be unstable in their principles, and subject to every variation that the interest of their guides may suggest. In short, it is impossible to construct a solid morality, if we take for our foundation the attributes of a deity so unjust, so capricious, and so changeable as the God of the Bible, whom we are commanded ...
— Letters to Eugenia - or, a Preservative Against Religious Prejudices • Baron d'Holbach

... the motion of the moon's apse, and thought he detected a smaller progression of the sun's apse. His tables were much more accurate than Ptolemy's. Abul Wefa, in the tenth century, seems to have discovered the moon's "variation." Meanwhile the Moors were leaders of science in the west, and Arzachel of Toledo improved the solar tables very much. Ulugh Begh, grandson of the great Tamerlane the Tartar, built a fine observatory at Samarcand in the fifteenth century, and made a great catalogue of stars, ...
— History of Astronomy • George Forbes

... protruded; the nose may be hot, or dry, or matted with dirt; the gums may be pale, &c. It will require but little experience to discover a disorganisation, which may be easily detected by him who has noticed the healthful appearance of the different parts and their variation under indisposition. ...
— Anecdotes of Dogs • Edward Jesse

... beginning. For the Stage, on which it is represented, being but one, and the same place; it isunnatural to conceive it many, and those far distant from one another. I will not deny but by the Variation of Painted scenes [scenery was introduced about this time into the English theatres, by Sir WILLIAM D'AVENANT and BETTERTON the Actor: see Vol. II. p. 278] the Fancy which, in these casts, will contribute to its own deceit, may sometimes imagine it several ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe


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