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correlation

cor·re·la·tion (kôr'ə-lā'shən, kŏr'-)
n.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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).]

correlational cor're·la'tion·al adj.

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