Definitions
1.NounThe act of varying; a partial change in the form, position, state, or qualities of a thing.
2.NounA related but distinct thing."When the process didn't work, we tried a variation.; All of his soups are variations on a single recipe."
3.NounThe angular difference at the vessel between the direction of true north and magnetic north.
4.NounA line of play that differs from the original.
5.NounA technique where material is repeated with alterations to the melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, texture, counterpoint or orchestration; but with some invariant characteristic, e.g. a ground bass.
6.NounThe modification of a hereditary trait.
7.NounDeviation from the mean orbit of a heavenly body.
8.NounThe situation where two or more linguistic forms appear in the same environment without a change in meaning, the choice of form being determined by factors of dialect, sociolect, register or simply the speaker's preference.
9.NounAn infinitesimal perturbation applied to a function, typically denoted
δ
f
{\displaystyle \delta f}
, used to probe how a functional changes.
10.NounThe corresponding first-order change in a functional induced by such a perturbation, typically denoted
δ
J
[
f
]
{\displaystyle \delta J[f]}
and called the first variation.