variation

plural variations

1. uncountableusuallyThe act of varying; a partial change in the form, position, state, or qualities of a thing.

   Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.

   2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3

2. uncountableusuallyA related but distinct thing.

   When the process didn't work, we tried a variation.

   2 more examples

   All of his soups are variations on a single recipe.

   Selfishness has different variations, but in the end it is all the same.

   2020 May 10, “Cultivation Experience of a Young Practitioner Born in the 90s”, in Minghui

3. uncountableusuallynauticalThe angular difference at the vessel between the direction of true north and magnetic north.

   Synonyms: magnetic declination

4. uncountableusuallyboard gamesA line of play that differs from the original.
5. uncountableusuallyentertainmentA 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. uncountableusuallybiologyThe modification of a hereditary trait.
7. uncountableusuallyastronomyDeviation from the mean orbit of a heavenly body.
8. uncountableusuallyhuman sciencesThe 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. uncountableusuallymathematicsAn infinitesimal perturbation applied to a function, typically denoted δf, used to probe how a functional changes.
10. uncountableusuallymathematicsThe corresponding first-order change in a functional induced by such a perturbation, typically denoted δJ[f] and called the first variation.