Cov
Units & Measurements abbreviation · Statistics
| Stands for | Covariance |
|---|---|
| Categories | Units & Measurements |
Cov stands for Covariance, a statistics abbreviation.
A measure of how two variables vary together: positive when they rise together, negative when one rises as the other falls. Cov(X, Y) is the expected product of their deviations from their means.
Example: Cov(X, Y) = 12.5, indicating the two variables tend to increase together.
Usage notes
Covariance depends on units, so its size is hard to interpret; dividing by both standard deviations gives the correlation coefficient r. A covariance matrix collects the covariances among many variables and is central to PCA and portfolio theory. Independence implies zero covariance, but zero covariance does not imply independence.
Related abbreviations
More statistics abbreviations
- BIC – Bayesian information criterion
- BLUE – Best linear unbiased estimator
- CDF – Cumulative distribution function
- CFA – Confirmatory factor analysis
- CI – Confidence interval
- CLT – Central limit theorem
- CV – Coefficient of variation
- df – Degrees of freedom
- DiD – Difference-in-differences
- DOE – Design of experiments
- EDA – Exploratory data analysis
- EFA – Exploratory factor analysis