Examples of “covariance” in a Sentence

noun A statistical measure of how two random variables vary together, based on the expected value of the product of their deviations from their means.

• A positive covariance means the two variables tend to rise together.
• The analyst calculated the covariance between height and weight.
• Covariance is the starting point for working out correlation.

noun In object-oriented programming, the property that lets a more specific subtype be used where the declared type is expected, for example in a method's return type.

• The language supports covariance for return types.
• Covariance is the counterpart of contravariance.
• He read up on covariance before designing the class hierarchy.