1. differences or disagreements between things that should be similar or consistent
2. official permissions to do something that is normally not allowed by rules or regulations
Usage: legal; administrative
3. measures of how spread out numbers are from their average value
Usage: statistics; mathematics

Examples

• The audit revealed several variances between the reported and actual expenses.
• There were significant variances in test scores across different schools.
• The city council approved variances for three new construction projects.
• Homeowners needed variances to build additions that exceeded height limits.
• The statistician calculated the variances to measure data spread.
• Budget variances indicated overspending in several departments.
• Planning variances allowed the restaurant to operate past normal hours.